celebrating 50 years of shaping lives · celebrate grand valley state university’s 50th...

THE DEPARTMENT OF ART & DESIGN AND SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS FACULTY CELEBRATE GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY

Celebrating 50 Years of Shaping Lives

Celebrating 50 Years of Shaping LivesGrand Valley has been educating students to shape their lives, their professions, and their societies for 50 years. Join us as we reflect on the past and look forward to the future.

WELCOMETHOMAS J. HAASPRESIDENT (2006-PRESENT)

INTRODUCTIONGAYLE R. DAVISPROVOST, VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AND STUDENT AFFAIRS

MULTiMEDiA I / II ESSAYSIGRID DANIELSONASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, Art History

MULTiMEDiA I ARTISTS

MULTiMEDiA II ARTISTS

MULTiMEDiA III ESSAYWILLIAM LIEBERMAN

MULTiMEDiA III ARTISTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSHENRY MATTHEWSDIRECTORGVSU GALLERIES AND COLLECTIONS

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THE DEPARTMENT OF ART & DESIGN AND SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS FACULTY CELEBRATE GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY’S 50TH ANNIVERSARYNew works by current faculty are presented in a wide range of media including: animation and video, ceramics, graphic design, illustration, installation, metals, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and textiles. This exhibition will be presented in two parts in Fall 2010.


THOMAS J. HAASPRESIDENT (2006-PRESENT)

WELCOME

What a privilege it is to be leading this university community as it marks its 50th anniversary. The three presidents who came before me have worked creatively and diligently to leave Grand Valley ever stronger. I am grateful to them and to the wonderful faculty and staff members who have built this university. Two of those impressive legacies reside in the fine and media arts faculty.

This on-line catalog is a look at the creative work of participating faculty in the Department of Art and Design and the School of Communications. The exhibition of their accomplishments will take place in stages throughout the 2010-11 anniversary year, challenging viewers while showcasing the talent that inspires students who will lead in the 21st century. The best of Grand Valley State University is yet to come. This exhibition reflects that great potential.

Everyday, but especially on occasions such as this milestone anniversary, the creative work of Grand Valley State University visual arts faculty is worth celebrating!

The three-part MULTiMEDiA exhibition effectively marks not only the varied expertise and exceptional talents of the participating faculty members and alumni, but it also represents the commitment Grand Valley has made to the visual arts since its institutional beginnings. For decades, the university’s facilities and grounds have been graced by artworks by past and present faculty members and students, all contributing to the “campus as gallery” atmosphere that enriches the whole community.

Anniversary years are characterized by looking back at the university’s accomplishments as well as forward toward future years. Experiencing this exhibition is a perfect component to our celebration. We are inspired by the creative achievements of our faculty and alumni. We can also be assured of a rich artistic future as well, as current or future students work and develop under the direction of these faculty, each one an extraordinary model of the creative life and professional success.

It’s indeed time to celebrate in honor of the excellent work represented here and the university that nurtured it.

GAYLE R. DAVISPROVOST, VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AND STUDENT AFFAIRS

INTRODUCTION

MULTiMEDiA Celebrating 50 Years of Shaping Lives 2

ESSAY

Sigrid Danielson received her B.A. in art history from Macalester College and completed her Ph.D. in medieval art at Indiana University. She joined the Art & Design Department faculty at Grand Valley State University in 2003, where she is an associate professor. In addition to survey and capstone courses, she teaches classes about medieval, Renaissance, Islamic, and American visual culture. Her research interests include the use of images to define institutional authority during the middle ages, Carolingian Italy, the medieval artist, religious ephemera, and historiography. Current projects include a collection of essays, co-edited with Dr. Evan Gatti at Elon University, that examine the roles of textual and visual practices in defining the medieval episcopacy.

This series of exhibitions, MULTiMEDiA I & II: Department of Art & Design and School of Communications Faculty Celebrate Grand Valley State University’s 50th Anniversary, demonstrate the range of creative and professional work produced by many current visual arts faculty. These shows represent a long tradition of faculty participation in campus visual arts programming that began just after the foundation of the institution in 1960.

In the 1960s and 1970s faculty teaching courses in visual media and art were not affiliated with a single department in the Grand Valley system. Early issues of the The Forum newsletter and student newspapers such as The Valley View and The Lanthorn regularly included information about individual faculty shows on campus. Professors of the visual arts often specialized in two-dimensional media and, not surprisingly, these articles attest to numerous exhibitions of drawing, painting, photography, and printmaking. The early exhibition spaces were modest, but in 1968 Grand Valley’s first campus gallery was established in Manitou Hall. It was soon replaced with one on the second floor of Lake Huron Hall. In the late 1970s a second venue was added upstairs in the Campus Center, now called the Kirkhof Center. The creation of this centrally located exhibition space encouraged the first group exhibitions of faculty work and successfully brought together professors from programs located throughout the campus. Articles in The Lanthorn reported clear support for these shows, but also expressed student interest in the creation of a permanent gallery space.

SIGRID DANIELSONASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, Art HistoryGVSU Department of Art & Design

The 1980s saw the reorganization of the institution and the formal change from Grand Valley State Colleges to a university model. Concurrent with these administrative shifts, enrollments in the visual arts programs increased and led to the hiring of faculty who specialized in a range of artistic practices. These professors enriched the curriculum with courses in animation, ceramics, digital media, filmmaking, metals, and sculpture. This era of expansion eventually led to the creation of the Department of Art and Design and the School of Communications. In 1985 the gallery moved to its present location in what was then called the Alexander Calder Fine Arts Center, now known as the Performing Arts Center. This new space, originally named the Calder Art Gallery, became the primary venue for faculty exhibitions. Articles in The Lanthorn covered shows by faculty specializing in animation as well as digital media and reflected student enthusiasm for the university’s new programs.

The late 1990s saw further expansion of the gallery’s role at GVSU. Henry Matthews was hired as the first Director of Galleries and Collections and instituted programs to enrich the university art collections and increase the presence of visual arts on campus. With the help of the gallery’s growing staff, the permanent collection has grown to include over 9500 items and an online database was developed to allow the public to access information about all of the works. In addition, four new gallery spaces were added to the Allendale and Grand Rapids Pew campuses. With these changes, GVSU’s arts faculty also received ongoing and new visibility for their work in the public areas of campus buildings through the commissions and acquisitions programs sponsored through the gallery. In recent years, the number of faculty exhibitions has also increased significantly from earlier decades. Since 2000, approximately twenty-five shows have featured work by professors in the visual arts. These presentations

highlighted the efforts of new and established faculty, showcased sabbatical projects, and continued the tradition of group exhibitions. The gallery staff has also organized faculty shows held in Chicago, England, Russia, and Australia. Faculty involvement in campus arts programming has recently expanded to include curatorial projects. Professors from the disciplines of anthropology, art history, classics, dance, music, philosophy, studio art, as well as writing have collaborated with the gallery staff and students to create thematic exhibitions and programs dedicated to visual and material culture. Future plans for faculty contributions to arts programming include the creation of multi-lingual audio tours for the campus collections and upcoming exhibitions.

Bringing together over sixty works created by twenty-eight faculty, MULTiMEDiA I and MULTiMEDiA II are the most comprehensive faculty exhibitions in the history of GVSU. The diversity of media, including animation, installation, metals, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, video, and works on paper reveals the commitment to an integrated role for the visual arts in the university community that was initiated during the early years of the institution. As individuals committed to scholarship and creative work, the contributors to these exhibitions manifest their dedication to the professional, intellectual, visual, and civic discourses that interpret and influence the world around us.

AcknowledgmentsThank you to the director and staff of the GVSU Art Gallery for providing me information and with access to exhibition files for the preparation of this essay. Supporting material from early campus publications was gleaned from the GVSU digital archives prepared by Nancy Richard, GVSU Archivist. http://gvsu.cdmhost.com/gvpages/publications.php Additional information about the history of the university was obtained from the History of GVSU website authored by Julie Christianson Stivers. http://www.gvsu.edu/anniversary/history-colleges-history-arts--30.htm

MULTiMEDiA Celebrating 50 Years of Shaping Lives 4

Anna Campbell

Jill Eggers

William Hosterman

Ann Baddeley Keister

David L. Rathbun

Barbara Roos

John Schmit

Lorelle Otis Thomas

Anthony W. Thompson

Victoria Veenstra

Richard Weis

Paul Wittenbraker

Ed Wong-Ligda

Renee Zettle-Sterling

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THE DEPARTMENT OF ART & DESIGN AND SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS FACULTY CELEBRATE GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY New works by current faculty are presented in a wide range of media including: animation and video, ceramics, graphic design, illustration, installation, metals, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and textiles. This exhibition will be presented in two parts in Fall 2010.

FRiDAY AUG. 27 - FRiDAY OCT. 01, 2010

OPENiNG RECEPTiON: WEDNESDAY SEPT. 15

5-7PM

MULTiMEDiA I

MULTiMEDiA I Celebrating 50 Years of Shaping Lives 6

SADDLESTAIRVariable DimensionsDigital Video, Plaster and Rope2007

ANNACAMPBELLASSISTANT PROFESSOR, 3D Foundations & SculptureGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION: 2006 M.F.A. University of Wisconsin, Madison. Sculpture 2001 B.A. College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio. Studio Art

Anna Campbell was born in Port Jefferson, New York, and grew up in the Midwest. Her engagement with sculpture was encouraged by a year-long course of study at the Akademisches Gymnasium in Willich, Germany. Campbell first became interested in video installation at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. She returned to New York briefly to intern as an artist assistant before receiving her BA. Between undergraduate and graduate school, Campbell worked for the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, focusing on administrative work related to public art. She studied sculpture, installation, public art and video at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received her MFA. She is currently living and working in Grand Rapids, Michigan and is an Assistant Professor in the Art & Design Department at Grand Valley State University.

Given the hyper-cynical quality of our contemporary era, a longing for hope seems increasingly critical. The most undiluted source for such hope can be found in romantic narratives of epic heroism, but these are fraught with universalizing and colonizing impulses. My practice engages different iterations of epic heroism in an effort to mine their inherently optimistic portrayals of the human condition, while also attempting to dismantle the more problematic political and social positions traditionally reinforced by these epic narratives.

This work has engaged multiple subjects, most consistently cowboys and boxers, as a tool to investigate the conflicting pairing of hopeful ideals with brutal practices. I use beauty and visibly labor-intensive processes to parallel the alluring nature of these romantic narratives. To further draw in my audience, I provide physical or psychological points of insertion for viewers to enmesh themselves as participants, thereby experiencing more vividly the conflict between fantastical utopian conquests and their troubling connotations. As a politically minded individual working in the context of a continually deconstructing culture, I present my viewers with romanticized epic narratives with heroes whose sense of hope can never be eclipsed by the possibility of their success. The implicit failure in these reconstructed epics has the power to be alternatingly symptomatic and sympathetic. This strategy allows me to both critique cultural obsessions with triumph and highlight the hope, faith and epic chutzpah that I hope to cultivate within myself.


CATHEAD BAY58” x 52”Oil on canvas2010

JILLEGGERSASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, PaintingGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION: M.F.A. Yale University, Painting/Printmaking M.A. Western Michigan University, Painting/Art Education

Jill Eggers teaches painting and coordinates the painting program at Grand Valley State University. In addition to her education in Kalamazoo and New Haven, she also studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been with GVSU since 2000, and previously was Associate Professor of Painting at Wichita State University. She also taught for several years in Chicago’s inner city public schools, where she established several grant-supported art programs for disadvantaged and special needs youth.

Her paintings and drawings explore, among other things, relationships between consciousness and physicality. Her work is exhibited nationally and is held in many private and public collections. She is currently working on and exhibiting a series of paintings based on dense forest landscapes in Michigan, many of which are influenced by places in the fiction and poetry of writer Jim Harrison.

I spend a lot of time in the woods with my dogs. Out among the trees exists a language without words where, when the mind is quiet, one observes the fullness of being; the fullness of the manifest world. This simple state has its ecstatic qualities. I am interested in this state--in the nature of consciousness and relations between the physical and the metaphysical, and thus I am interested in using painting as a means to examine how we see and where we locate the ‘self’ in seeing. It seems to me that the visual experience resonates intimately with our emotional and subjective experience of the world.

AMAN PARK50” x 53”Oil on canvas2010

My recent paintings are based on the landscape--specifically, the dense and lyrical woods of Michigan. In addition to the influences of other painters and visual artists, several writers have had a significant and lasting influence on my work. A lifelong literary influence are the writings of Michigan author Jim Harrison. Harrison’s influence is based on landscape as the nexus of the relation of the inner life to the outer, or the spiritual to the material. Some of my paintings use locations in the writing of Harrison as a departure point. For the past couple years I have traveled around to places Harrison lived, or to places he wrote about, taking pictures and sometimes making drawings. The paintings grow out of those visual notes.


REACH11” x 35 1/2”Etching2009

BILLHOSTERMANASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, 2D Foundations Drawing & PrintmakingGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:1999 M.F.A. Printmaking, Indiana University, Bloomington1995 B.F.A. Printmaking, Pennsylvania State University

Bill Hosterman was born in Pennsylvania and attended Penn State University. After earning his BFA in printmaking in 1995, he received a Fulbright scholarship to study printmaking for a year in South Africa. He completed his MFA in printmaking at Indiana University-‐Bloomington in 1999. Hosterman has been teaching at Grand Valley State University since 1999. Now an associate professor, his work has been shown both nationally and internationally, including exhibitions in Hawaii, Italy, Germany, China and the United Arab Emirates.

I am interested in creating psychological spaces that reflect upon the nature of our physical existence. Rhythm and repetition allow my body to become a conduit to my mind, permitting me to transcend conscious experience, to embark upon a journey, filtering and distilling the senses before arriving in a fundamentally new place. Through the physical process of creating these works, they become a part of me, an extension of my responses to the physical world, an expression of my mental state and a catalog of my memories.

Drawing offers a means of defining the mental self through physical action. It becomes a type of mental motion, so as I move my tool across the surface, I am

CURRENT (DETAIL)11” X 11 1/2”Etching2010

moving from one place to another, and the movement defines a new space in my mind. Through the line, I am able to explore ideas about the individual in the environment, as well as the desire, if not the outright human need, to seek out answers about our place in the greater scheme of things.

Printmaking is an essential and fundamental aspect of my work. On one level, there are clear boundaries that govern the nature of the process and offer structure for my creative process. There is also room for me to identify ideas that are not always intentional. Making work becomes a collaboration with the part of my mind that is instinctual, allowing me to respond intuitively to the medium–building layers, each existing on its own, but coming together to form something new and unpredictable.


VENETIAN WINDOW (DETAIL)5’ x 7’Cotton, Silk, Glass Beads2010

ANN BADDELEY KEISTERASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, 2-D Foundations & FibersGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:M.F.A. University of KansasB.F.A. University of Kansas

Ann Keister joined the art and design faculty at Grand Valley State University in 1997 after producing art, lecturing and teaching at Idaho State University, Ball State University, University of Kansas and Indiana University. Her quilts, tapestries and fabric-based art have been widely exhibited and published. Her strong connections to the world of textile art have allowed her to organize exhibitions and produce catalogs. Awards for her work has led to commissions – her art work is held in both public, private, corporate and museum collections.

I strive for my images to feel original and contemporary while referencing the decorative art and architecture of the past. Using mainly vintage Japanese fabrics and some silks from other cultures, I also hope that my pieces have a timeless quality. In choosing the textile as my object I hope to make pieces that fit into the continuum of the applied arts. I do not consider the term “decorative” to be pejorative. Many of my sources of inspiration come from the world of the applied and the decorative arts. I consider my most important activity as an artist to be the gestation and transformation of historic images and motifs into work that is contemporary, unique and personal to me.

BEAUTY’S HOUSE (DETAIL)5’ x 7’Cotton, Silk, Glass Beads2009

One of my goals is to make objects of desire that seduce the eye of the viewer with color and image and intricate technique. I want the work that I do to leave room for the viewer to interpret. I deliberately strive to achieve subtlety in what I reveal about my worldview and myself – I prefer to use visual metaphors and to hint at meaning rather than to make overt statements. At the same time, I do not want to make work that the viewer cannot grasp without reading a statement. Rather, I feel that it is important for the work to have a strong visual impact while retaining mysterious and intangible qualities that can hold the attention of its audience.


NIGEBOAT20” x 16”Color Photograph, Giclée Print2010

DAVID L. RATHBUNPROFESSOR, PhotographyGVSU School of Communications

EDUCATION:1994 B.A. English LiteratureWheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois

David Rathbun founded the photography program at GVSU in 1981 following an apprenticeship in Santa Fe with photographer Eliot Porter, graduate education at Columbia Teacher’s College and Princeton Theological Seminary and a teaching stint at the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has lectured and exhibited widely and his images are included in numerous public and private collections. In addition to his photography work of and about color, he sails and travels extensively.

My photographs have been shaped by my intent to define vision along lines of color information rather than subject matter. In popular conception, the “blue book” is primarily grounded in “book” and the color signifier is merely an adjective. For forty years, my intent has been to make the “blue” more important than the “book” in the ordering action of vision upon the appearances of the world. My interest is not in showing what things look like, rather to assert what it is like to look when color defines the significance of the image.

In this current work I have explored spaces for non-industrial work: artist’s studios and craftsperson’s spaces. These are places where idiosyncratic work takes place. Things are created and fabricated. The space is a means to an end and is often chaotic in appearance. A kind of vernacular color emerges, not as the result of intentionality or interior design concepts, but as the by-product of paths leading somewhere else toward something else. In these images, the action of color transforms these spaces from their functional significance to an apparent (visual) order.

UNTITLED (from the Shop Series)20” X16”Color Photograph, Giclée Print2010


50 IN 55:30Film2010

BARBARA ROOSASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, Film & Video ProductionGVSU School of Communications

EDUCATION:1961 M.A. Anthropology, University of Michigan1960 B.A. Anthropology, University of Michigan

In primary school, Barbara Roos received what is called a “progressive education” based on the philosophies of John Dewey and William James. This inspired her life-long interest in educational philosophies and practices. In the late 1970s, she joined the faculty of GVSU’s experimental William James College, where she founded the very successful Film/Video Production concentration. Prior to her teaching career, Roos produced award-winning non-fiction productions for PBS stations across the country as well as for clients such as the National Wildlife Federation, the U.S. Public Health Service, and the National Council of Churches. Professor Roos served as Associate Director of the School of Communications from 1998 – 2008, and in 2001 she was the recipient of the university’s 2001 Teaching Excellence in Arts & Humanities Award.

Her current projects include writing about the ways documentary and feature film modes are becoming integrated; teaching production planning to non-professional media makers of the digital age and working with a group of Bedouin women in the Egyptian Sinai to produce videos about their ways of life.

Graduation caps and gowns and ivory (carillon) towers are witness to traditional aspects of higher education. However, such continuities can disguise the ways higher education is not a product but a process – one that must constantly respond to new challenges.

GVSU began with a clean slate only fifty years ago, but many changes have come along since. This video is about some of those changes. It’s also a conversation with the viewer about their own ideas about the goals of higher education. The three segments of the video may be viewed in order, or independently.

Segment 1: Many scholars have written about the 1960-70s era of American educational reform. Now watch eye-witness reports, West Michigan style:

Segment 2: The integration of liberal and professional/career education has been a core value at GVSU for decades. Here’s some evidence:

Segment 3: We can easily see evidences of the gains achieved over time. This segment speaks to some of the necessary losses.

These video segments are excerpted from two full-length documentaries: AN UNFINISHED CONVERSATION by Barbara Roos & Suzanne Zack, 1984, and THE CONVERSATION CONTINUES by Barbara Roos & Girbe Eefsting, 2008. Both documentaries can be viewed in on-line excerpts or in full length DVD format by contacting Professor Roos at the university.


WAITING FOR SOLI5:40Film2007

JOHN SCHMITASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, Film & Video ProductionGVSU School of Communications

EDUCATION:2002 M.F.A. Film/Video Production, University of Iowa1997 B.A. Media Arts for Social Awareness, Prescott College, Prescott, Arizona

John Schmit is a documentary filmmaker and associate professor at Grand Valley State University. His work focuses primarily on environmental issues and many have been selected for screening at numerous film festivals and PBS broadcasts. He teaches courses in video production, documentary, and audio production. His most recent work is Lake Invaders: The Fight for Lake Huron.

Waiting for Soli is a video based on the events that took place when our daughter was born. Rather than make a conventional documentary of the birth and of the drama that unfolded, I’ve attempted to explore the emotional territory in a more experimental mode. While making this,I felt I was walking a fine line between artfully evoking these emotions and “selling” them as sensational victimhood. My intention was to capture the emotional change from exuberance to fear.

There’s a moment when events like this happen when one is confronted with the need to let go of previous expectations. During this uncertainty the imagination runs wild and it can be a real test of one’s ability to confront fear. I hope audiences will make connections with their own experiences/fears, rather than simply feeling sorry for what we went through.

At the end of the video, I don’t explain what happened after the event, other than to acknowledge that we returned to our home. Although much has happened to us subsequently, I wanted this period of time to stand on its own. In that way, I hope to leave the audience with a sense of hope amidst uncertainty-- much like what many parents encounter after such an experience.


CIRCLELINE (Poster for Typeface) 17” x 11”Adobe Illustrator, mounted to Font Lab2009

LORELLE OTIS THOMASPROFESSOR, Design History Illustration & Graphic DesignGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:1997 M.F.A. Illustration, Syracuse University 1993 B.A. Art Education, Eastern Michigan University

KRISTIN’S MAJUSCULE (Poster for Typeface)17” x 11”Hand calligraphy, scanned and refined in Adobe Illustrator, mounted to Font Lab.2009

Lorelle Otis Thomas began her studies in graphic design, illustration, and painting at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. She then worked as a graphic designer for sixteen years in a variety of positions including art director in the Department of Education at Sea World, San Diego and senior designer & art director at University Publications, Eastern Michigan University. When she completed her graduate studies in 1990, she joined the faculty at Grand Valley State University where she coordinates the Graphic Design program in the School of Art & Design in addition to teaching graphic design, illustration, and design history.

Mathanimals, an instructional mathematics game board developed and illustrated by Thomas, has been published by Talicor Games and sold through Target.com. Her artwork has been included in two Society of Illustrators invitational traveling exhibitions, Favorite Flix and First Wheels. Her illustrations have been published in books such as Mothers Together and An Old Time Christmas and her watercolor paintings are in numerous private and public collections including the permanent collection of GVSU.

As a designer, I love fonts. They give design jobs personality. As an illustrator, I love fonts. Each letter is like a perfect little drawing. As an historian, I love fonts. Each era has its own style which is expressed in the type design.

I have designed fonts since I was in high school. When I doodle at meetings and lectures, I always sketch letter shapes. With the font software that is now available I can turn my earlier designs and doodles into functioning typefaces. And I’ve got to tell you, the first time you select from the font list and start typing and it comes out in your very own font, it’s a real rush.

When I am designing, I take on somebody else’s problem to solve. I go into it knowing the theme but I have to work out all of the details. I have to draw on all of my knowledge of pop culture, literature, music, art, foreign languages, geography, science and history. I am forced to think laterally because clues can have multiple meanings. I struggle until my brain cells hurt. It feels like someone has popped the top off my head and is going after my brain with an egg beater. Pieces begin to fit. I build on what I have and find more answers. The solution suddenly becomes obvious. There is a rush, a satisfaction, a high. It works!


LAST RESISTANCE8” x 10”Photogravure with chin colle2009

ANTHONY W. THOMPSONASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, Photography DEPARTMENT CHAIRGVSU School of Communications

EDUCATION:1993 M.F.A. Photography, Washington University, St. Louis1989 B.S. Physics, University of Dallas, Irving

A native of Colorado, A.W. Thompson has lived and worked in Rome, Italy as a freelance photographer as well as a commercial advertising photographer in several Midwestern studios. His photographs and artwork have been included in numerous public collections including the Midwest Photographer’s Project Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, and have been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad. Thompson’s artwork is often about the meanings we attribute to, or derive from, our experiences of place and/or technology, and the relationship of art and science as ways of knowing.

I have been very interested in the creative possibilities afforded by combining new digital technologies with vintage photographic processes. Reverse Alchemy is a new body of work in photogravure that critiques our contemporary cultural and environmental conditions. Although the process includes digitally composing the images, creating the sculptural elements and printing the images in photogravure lend a physical aspect to the process that I enjoy.

WILLIAM’S DREAM (DETAIL)8” x 8”Photogravure with chin colle2009


AMAZON’S IN JENISON30” x 20”Pinhole Image, Chromogenic Photograph2008

VICTORIA VEENSTRAASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, Photography GVSU School of Communications

EDUCATION:1994 M.F.A. Photography, University of Michigan1984 B.F.A. University of Michigan

Victoria Veenstra is a photographic artist who employs a variety of cameras to capture vignettes of everyday life – from tales from the morning ritual of coffee to landscapes of the daily commute. Her current work includes color pinhole photographs for Roadsides - a series of images found in the boundary area between the road and the inhabited land. She has taught all levels of photography at the University of Michigan, Center for Creative Studies, Detroit and the University of Toledo as well as workshops in New York City. She joined the faculty of Grand Valley State University in 2000. Her work is widely exhibited both nationally and internationally.

My photographic images are chromogenic prints (30” x 20’) made from color pinhole negatives. They are part of an on-going body of work entitled The Conversations Series:

The Conversation SeriesIs a visual quandary to the question“What would a superwoman sayif she had coffee with me today?”These images interlace conversationsbetween the self and the mythicsuperwoman who visits my table.Myths contain morsels of truthrelying on our collective consciousness

“B” HORRORS (DETAIL)30” x 20” Pinhole Image, Chromogenic Photograph2009

and blended with childhood memories,when stirred, imagination shiftsmyths to life.Or is it life’s rare momentswhere myth greets the “real”during daily coffee rituals?


UNTITLED26” x 47”Oil on Canvas2010

RICHARD WEISASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, 2D Foundations & PaintingGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:1977 M.F.A. Painting, Indiana University1974 B.F.A. Painting, Kansas City Art Institute

Rick Weis has been a member of Grand Valley State University’s Art & Design faculty since 1991. He teaches Two-Dimensional Design, Color and Design, and Drawing 1 and 2 and serves as the Foundations Coordinator. Before coming to GVSU, he taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, and as an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina in Asheville, Coker College in South Carolina, and North Carolina Wesleyan College. Additionally, he served three years as an artist in residence in the North Carolina Visiting Artist Program. His work has been exhibited in more than two hundred exhibitions and juried shows in thirty-six states. Sixteen of them were one person exhibitions. He has received thirty six awards for his paintings and drawings, of which nearly all were earned in national competitions.

My work investigates the use of visual dynamics to create structure. I use abstract geometric and non-representational shapes to create a visual field where opposing visual forces interact to form a structure. The ubiquitous nature of visual dynamics makes it a rich area of investigation in science and art. It is fundamental to the act of vision and visual cognition, evident in objects all around us and is an essential pheno-menon in art. Of all our senses, vision is the most dynamic. A significant aspect of it involves organizing dynamic properties that exist in all objects. The look of natural objects are, in part, the result of the forces that formed them while artificial objects reflect the production process or the function for which they were designed.

This intuitive process, the resulting structure of visual forces, and analysis of that structure intrigues me. I create visual fields in which the viewer can focus on dynamic relationships without the distraction of unnecessary detail or the painterly act or gesture such as brushstroke. The effects of force and counter force, attraction and repulsion, and sub-structures versus the macro-structure are issues of interest to me. Of additional interest is the effect of the dominant left to right vector of the picture plane and quadrant location upon dynamics, visual weight, and dominance. The eye and brain effortlessly scan and interpret faster than the quickest computer. Sight is our most complex sense and the most taken for granted. My work allows for the contemplation of the most fundamental sense in visual art, vision, undertaking one of its most fundamental tasks, creating a structure out of numerous and opposing dynamic forces.


PLASTICSPACE:SCRAP (DETAIL)27” x 18”Installation, Digital Images, Plastic Shapes2010

PAUL WITTENBRAKERASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, FoundationsGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:M.F.A. Painting, Cranbrook Academy of ArtB.A. Psychology, Wabash College

PLASTICSPACE:SCRAP (DETAIL)27” x 18”Installation, Digital Images, Plastic Shapes2010

Paul Wittenbraker is an artist and educator with prior administrative experience as director of the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (UICA) in downtown Grand Rapids. At Grand Valley State University, he started the Civic Studio program, for which he received a Michigan Campus Compact Award. Recently, Wittenbraker led the development of the Visual Studies studio major at GVSU. Recent public presentations include his lecture Civic Studio and the Plastic City as part of the Cranbrook Academy of Art’s Critical Studies Series and the exhibition Facing Michigan at the UICA.


Plasticspace is an ongoing inquiry into imagination and the use of shared public space that applies the plastic and arbitrary logic of the studio to the investigation and construction of representations of space. The images presented here are specific spaces near Grand Rapids.

The shapes are census blocks; the basic divisions of space created by the U.S. Census Bureau to spatialize data. Good shapes are selected that are rich in visual association and memorable as unique forms. In this step the census block shapes are evaluated based on unrelated visual criteria. The shapes are fabricated into flat plastic forms and then used as mediators in experiencing and investigating the spaces. Studio work takes place at each space.

The next phase of the project will involve depositing the forms at each site. They will be put in the public domain using the (GFDL) copyleft license, which allows people to hold, use, copy, alter, and share the objects, but not to own them. People who find and retain the objects can establish contact through the project site at: http://viget.org/Plasticspace.

There is a strong correlation between “good” census blocks and several factors. The oddness of the shapes reflects the often irregular features of these sites. They are spatially and directionally confusing. Scale and proximity variations make the spaces hard to locate, resulting in an isolating effect. Each space has a relationship to a body of water, some of which are hidden. There is a prevalence of obscured paths. Land use has shifted in radical ways over time, but industrial use is a constant. Borders are make-shift and incidental. The spaces are associated with stories that claim fantastic and questionable truths.

LINDY INJECTING FERTILITY DRUG48” x 70”Oil on Canvas2009

ED WONG-LIGDAPROFESSOR, IllustrationGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:M.F.A. Painting, University of TulsaB.F.A. Advertising/Illustration Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles

Ed Wong-Ligda was born and raised in Palo Alto, California. His first published art was a parents’ night program border for his kindergarten class. He decided to become an artist at the age of eight. Soon after, his mother gave him lessons in Chinese brush painting – techniques that he continues to use. After ten years of graphic design and illustration work, he was awarded multiple commissions and residencies, encouraging him to pursue a career in painting. After studying under Glenn Godsey in Tulsa, he taught for two years before accepting a position at Kendall College of Art and Design as the Coordinator of Illustration and Chair of Design Studies. Wong-Ligda came to Grand Valley State University in 1996 to create and coordinate the Illustration program in the School of Art and Design. His most recent public art project was a commission for the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, dedicated in March 2010. He is currently in the planning stages of a monumental mural for the State of Louisiana and is working on paintings for gallery exhibition.

When I was four years old, I was put into a situation where I was able to observe a poignant mix of beauty, vulnerability and medical intervention. For some reason, even as a young child, I felt that the relationship between these qualities was significant. As an adult, it is still one of the things I think about constantly, and most of my art deals with this theme either directly or indirectly. Lindy Injecting Fertility Drug, 2009 is the latest in a long line of paintings. My next one planned for this series (but not yet begun) is Lindy Nine Months Pregnant.


OBJECT OF MOURNING: TEARS #27” x 10”Cast Kleenex, Copper2010

OBJECT OF MOURNING: SENSES #27” x 10”Clothing, Copper, Brass 2010

RENEE ZETTLE-STERLINGASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, 3-D Design, SculptureMetals/JewelryGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:1998 M.A. Jewelry/Metalsmithing 1997 M.F.A. Sculpture/InstallationEdinboro University of Pennsylvania1993 B.F.A. Fibers/PapermakingIndiana University of Pennsylvania

Renee Zettle-Sterling’s studio practice consists of the exploration of a multiplicity of media and techniques to create body contraptions from found objects. Through her work, she investigates the nature of objects and space. Her creations are as much about fragmentation, displacement and emptiness, as they are about sentimentality and nostalgia. Zettle-Sterling’s work has been exhibited widely, including shows at theJapan Jewelry Designers Association Biennale Exhibition at The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo; The Museum of Arts and Crafts, Itami City; The Museum for Art and Design in Hamburg; Gallery Yu in Tokyo; Artspace in Richmond, Virginia; Zolla/Lieberman Gallery in Chicago; Artisans Center of Virginia in Waynesboro and Arts and Literature Laboratory in New Haven. Additionally, her work has been published in 1000 Rings: Inspiring Adornment for the Hand; 500 Wedding Bands; The Art of Jewelry: Paper and 500 Metal Vessels all by Lark Books in addition to Metalsmith Magazine and American Craft Magazine.

Through this body of work, I am investigating how objects can assist us through the difficult passages of mourning. While in mourning, objects can link us to loved ones who have passed or to moments in life that are fleeting. This observation has inspired me to develop a strong interest in outmoded objects, such as hand fans and doilies, which, sadly, are no longer used or valued as they once were.

OBJECT OF MOURNING: TEARS #27” x 10”Cast Kleenex, Copper2010

I believe that these once beautifully decorative and valued objects carry with them the potential to become a source of meaning beyond their physical properties thus becoming an outlet for displacement – giving the dead a presence. The binding relationship between ritual objects, domestic spaces and everyday activities is the foundation for this work.


Collin Bradford

Brett Colley

Timothy Fisher

Dellas Henke

Virginia Jenkins

Hoon Lee

Deanna Morse

John Harper Philbin

Kim Lynne Roberts

Beverly J. Seley

Stafford Hiroshi Smith

Kirsten Strom

Norwood Viviano

Katalin Zaszlavik

THE DEPARTMENT OF ART & DESIGN AND SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS FACULTY CELEBRATE GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY New works by current faculty are presented in a wide range of media including: animation and video, ceramics, graphic design, illustration, installation, metals, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and textiles. This exhibition will be presented in two parts in Fall 2010.

THURSDAY OCT. 14 - FRiDAY NOV. 09, 2010

OPENiNG RECEPTiON: THURSDAY OCT. 14

5-7PM

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MULTiMEDiA II Celebrating 50 Years of Shaping Lives 36

ECLIPSING THE SUN14 MinutesDigital Video2008

COLLIN BRADFORDASSISTANT PROFESSOR, Visual StudiesGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:M.F.A. Emphasis in New Media, University of IllinoisB.F.A. Painting, Drawing, B.A. Spanish TranslationBrigham Young University

ENERGY SECURITY (DETAIL)5” x 10” plus electrical cordCustom Electronics. Oil Bottle2008

Collin Bradford joined Grand Valley State University’s art and design faculty in 2008, teaching video and audio production & editing, visual studies and new media. In the short time since earning his M.F.A. his works have been screened across the United States and in Europe. He is fluent in both English and Spanish, and his bilingual skills have influenced ways in language informs his art. His recent short film Waking Helen, was chosen to be screened at the opening of the Het Beschrijf 10th Anniversary Celebration, in Brussels, Belgium in 2008.

My work explores how we mentally and physically navigate the world we inhabit. With much of my work, I examine the interaction between mental and physical experience. Recently, I have dealt with how we mentally negotiate our existence as physical beings in a physical universe, following an interest in the material manifestations of mental activity (such as electromagnetic brainwaves) and in how we conceptualize our physical experiences.

These interests have led me to explore the relationship between the individual and the larger universe. I intervene at various scales in the experience imposed upon the individual by the solar system (such as the duration of sun light). I use my body to perform actions that activate questions about volition, determinism, and our position as individual beings in the vast universe.

Another developing theme within my art practice involves my history with language - I am trained and have worked as a translator and interpreter. I conceive of our use of language as a tool in mental navigation of the social (which is both physical and mental.) I have been exploring how the concept of qualia from the philosophy of mind might apply to our experience of language. This had led me to an examination of the ways language is used to produce effect in a calculated way, rather than to signify with precision. Much of this exploration has focused on language used in political discourse related to national security.


ISHMAEL (DETAIL)12” x 8”Mixed Media (relief printing, ink drawing, paper back novel)2010

BRETT COLLEYASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, FoundationsGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:1994 M. F. A. University of Iowa, Printmaking1991 B.F.A. Grand Valley State University

Brett Colley currently teaches drawing, printmaking, artists’ books, and professional practices at Grand Valley State University. Since 2005 he has also taught at the Ox-Bow Summer School of Art and Artists’ Residency in Saugatuck, Michigan. Colley has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. His past solo projects include site-specific print murals at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids (GULF, 2004), the SPACES Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio (Dissent, 2005), and the Chicago Music Garage (Revisioning America, 2006.) More recently, Colley’s work has been included in the 81st International Competition at The Print Center in Philadelphia, 2008 North American Print Biennial at the 808 Gallery in Boston, NewPop Prints at LUX Center for the Arts in Omaha, and the 2008 Minnesota Print Biennial at Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Minneapolis. Colley is also active in curatorial programming for UICA, having served as a member of its Visual Arts Committee since 2004. His work with the UICA has included national and international exhibitions of contemporary artists’ books (Under Cover, 2006), drawing (Drawing No Conclusions, 2007), and printmaking ((S)Edition, 2010.)

My recent work examines the conditions that impede the ability of life on Earth to exist sustainably, and the role of art in our understanding of those conditions. Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity of a given ecosystem to flourish indefinitely. Human civilization is but one of many ecosystems sharing this planet.

The foremost obstruction to our successful continuation is a tale we tell ourselves - that human beings are the privileged culmination of evolution, and that the vast riches of this world exist solely for our benefit. This is the meta-narrative of Modernity, written over all aspects of human life.

ISHMAEL (DETAIL)12” x 8”Mixed Media (relief printing, ink drawing, paper back novel)2010

Worse, many of the most innovative among us have resolved that the realization of our species’ full potential necessitates the exploitation and subjugation of nearly all others. The myth of humankind as the center of the universe is destructively manifest in our industrialized agriculture, sprawling urban and suburban developments, the consumption and eradication of non-human creatures, and the suppression of any natural expression other than our own.

In short, our story itself is a grave impediment to Earth’s survival. Art does not remove such impediments; art recognizes them, frames them, and reveals them. By raising consciousness, art creates the conditions for empathy. Empathy creates the conditions for action. Action leads to change.


SUMMER SNOW36” x 24”Oil on panel2010

TIMOTHY FISHERASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, Foundations & DrawingGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:1996 M.F.A. University of Cincinnati, Studio Drawing 1994 M.A. Central Washington University Studio Drawing and Painting 1988 B. A. Central Washington University Studio Drawing and Painting

In 1998, Tim Fisher joined the Art & Design faculty of Grand Valley State University where he coordinates the Drawing Program. His work is widely exhibited across the United States and he is the recipient of numerous awards for his paintings, many of whichcan be found in both public and private collections.

Tornados of fruit, milky floating grounds, flora, fauna, and folks are samples of imagery that drift dreamily through this ostensibly traditional work. I strive for understated complex and seemingly conventional relationships. Drawing upon the visual traditions in painting, the work explores iconography, archetypes, and narratives. The goal is not to be didactic, but to prompt a reflective questioning, a quiet experience. The initial glance presents something familiar and warm to most. Seen more closely, things seem strange, out of place, sublime, mystical. There is an impression of important events occurring between individuals, a dialogue of both mystery (subconscious) and possibility (conscious).

Drawing upon my own European culture and its tradition of symbols and desires, the fluid relationships between the subject, beauty, conflict, passion, suffering and other classic archetypes can be called into rumination and questioning.


X0 YOU9” x 12” Hand Colored Engraving and Etching2010

DELLAS HENKEPROFESSOR, PrintmakingGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:1979 M.F.A./M.A. Printmaking, University of IowaB.S. SUNY at Brockport

I began as a painter and continued studying painting until I finally recognized that the paintings were getting worse. In 1975 I discovered printmaking and eventually went on to study that at the University of Iowa. From there I moved to Rochester, NY where I set up a press, and printed for other artists to pay rent and to learn the skills. From that studio, I began making exhibition prints. It was also around that time that I began my association with Samuel Beckett and ultimately made three books of prints with his texts. By 1982 I began to teach at Grand Valley State College, (now University), in West Michigan, where I continue to teach and to make prints and paint, although making and printing photographs has occupied more and more of my studio engagement in recent years. Along with the C. Suite form which the print in this exhibition is from, I have been working on a series of photographs I’m calling Chemo Waste, documenting the all too common experience of going through cancer treatment.

After working on these prints and drawings for several months I began to see them as responsive to the torsions and tensions that bind and unbind…energies often blind, random and wild. Eros, underneath the Logos, we generally organize our lives by day to day. These energies play out close to home or between distant cultures, across town or around the office. This body of work is selected from a group of about forty prints to date that might be described in general as an imaginative meditation on how we move into and away from useful relationships or connections. How we move or are moved into exile – the feelings of being somewhere or of being in an undetermined territory. I wondered about the instability of relationships even as lines literally hope to somehow “fix” that instability.

DRINKING LEAVES (DETAIL)12” x 9” Engraving, Aquatint, Etching2010

In some ways the etched lines fix evidence as boundaries between two entities melt, over-lap, re-emerge, pronounce themselves then yield to an “other” or to some sort of incomprehensible whole. The lines dig beneath the Logos to create more generous pictures as the lines between I and “other” entrain.


ON THE EDGE24” x 36”Acrylic on Canvas2008

VIRGINIA JENKINSPROFESSOR, Painting & DrawingDEPARTMENT CHAIR GVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:M.F.A. Painting & Drawing, University of UtahB.F.A. Painting & Drawing, Michigan State University

SECRETS (DETAIL)36” x 24”Acrylic on Canvas2005

Virginia Jenkins was recruited to chair the Department of Art & Design at Grand Valley State University in August, 2008 after holding previous positions at the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Her areas of specialty are in painting, drawing, and mixed media work. Her primary painting medium is acrylics, although she has extensive experience with oils and watercolor. Landscape forms and images have been her primary focus for two decades. Topographical, spatial and conceptual locations are focal points that her work addresses. The paintings are meant to convey memorable aspects of particular sites, and to present a view of them as Jenkins experienced it. The images serve as a catalyst, allowing the viewer to use them as a departure point for travel in their mind and imagination while viewing the painting. Jenkins’ work is in numerous private and public collections including the University of Michigan - Flint, Public Service Co. of Colorado, IBM in Boulder, CO, the East/West Partnership of Vail, CO, and Information Handling Systems (HIS) of Englewood, CO.

Landscape forms and images have been the primary focus of my work for more than two decades. Land areas that attract me are those that speak about uniqueness, variety and permanence. Topographical and spatial placements are elements the work addresses. Each work is created to speak of the unique and memorable qualities of the site as I experienced it. Paintings large in scale are created to convey an emotional intensity about the location in an attempt to share that experience with the viewer. Smaller scale work is intended to offer briefer experiences to the viewer and oftentimes focuses on individual landscape elements. The images are meant to serve as a catalyst which will allow the viewer to use them as a departure point for travel in their mind and imagination while observing the work. The paintings are acrylic on canvas and the paint is applied in a stain process. The paint sinks into the fibers of the canvas creating an appearance that is similar to the surface of fabric. Artistic influences on my work include American painters such as Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Georgia O’Keeffe, and the work of painters from the Hudson River School and the Luminist tradition. The style of my work can be described as primarily Representational, combined with elements of Abstraction and Surrealism.


MURMUR, MURDER & MOTHERVarious DimensionsDigital Video format, Performance Installation2001

HOON LEEASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, CeramicsGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:2001 M.F.A. Ceramic ArtNew York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University1994 M.A. Industrial Design (Emphasis in Ceramics)Seoul National University of Technology, Korea1992 B.A. Ceramic Arts, Seoul National University of Technology, Korea

Hoon Lee has coordinated the Grand Valley State University Ceramics Program since 2004. He has had twenty solo exhibitions/projects nationally and internationally. He was an invitational artist at the 2009 5th World Ceramic Biennale Korea, the International Ceramic Workshop and the International Society for Ceramic Art Education and Exchange Symposium in Korea. His work was featured in The Margins in conjunction with the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Conference at The Icehouse in Phoenix. Lee’s installation for the Urban Clay Invitational Points of Entry was created for the 2008 International Sculpture Conference at UICA in Grand Rapids. Lee works primarily as a performative installation artist, focusing on CLAY as Idea, Material, Process and Concept. He was Artist-In-Residence at The Pottery Workshop in Shanghai; the Santa Fe Art Institute; the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha; the International Symposium on Ceramic Plastic Art in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and the International Workshop of Ceramic Art in Tokoname, Japan. In 2009, he received the Contemporary Korean Ceramic Artist of the Year Award from Santiago Gallery in New York.

MURMUR, MURDER & MOTHER _WASHED is an on-going performative installation project where in the simple act of washing becomes an act of penance. The specifics of each installation, including the who, what, where, when and how, is dictated by every individual venue. The only constant is the ephemeral performative act of washing in the presence of an audience and the inevitable (comparably enduring) installation. Thus, WASHED is completed. IDEA: Art is an individual endeavor. However, if one expresses oneself in another language, one should reconsider whether one is qualified to do so or limited in expression. Art needs physical and sensual material to be formed; therefore, the “formative stuff” is presented.MATERIAL: Material forms the sensual and actual “foreground”

MURMUR, MURDER & MOTHERVarious DimensionsDigital Video format, Performance Installation2001

of a work of art as an aesthetic object. The material is stipulated by an artistic form and, at the same time, stipulates it. Every material has a spirit. The artist must find and extract the spirit, then express it as an object. One focuses on understanding the medium; there is no limit. Others concentrate on feeling the material; there is a limit. Therefore, an ideal philosophy is moderation.PROCESS: To be art is art; the artist creates art therefore art creates the artist. To find the spirit of the object, the artist has to have contemplation. Meaning of art is generated through movement along a series of meta- phoric levels: from elemental material, to the physical state, to the conceptual and finally, to the creative implications embodied by this process.CONCEPT: I would like us to edify not a duplicate system that induces the sense of sight, of form and content, and aesthetics and concept, but to have art show us its beauty through touch and experience.


BREATHING ROOM4 MinutesAnimation2009

DEANNA MORSEPROFESSOR, Film & Video ProductionGVSU School of Communications

EDUCATION:M.F. A. School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Art & TechnologyM.A. Goddard College, Film & TeachingB.S. Iowa State University, Ames, Film, Photography & Art

Deanna Morse is an independent filmmaker specializing in animation and personal short films and videos – subjects that she has taught at Grand Valley State University since 1979. Her works have been screened internationally, won awards and are represented in permanent collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Morse is active as a leader in the independent film and video communities and has judged or served on selection committees for many festivals and computer graphics competitions internationally. She has published widely and has been featured on CNN’s Future Watch, and interviewed on National Public Radio. Numerous grants support her more than thirty independent films and videos. In 2001, she published an Addy and Omni award winning retrospective DVD MOVE-CLICK-MOVE, which includes three-dozen films, hundreds of behind-the-scenes production photos, and animated and motion menus. In 1993, the Michigan Association of Governing Boards of State Universities named her a Distinguished Professor. In 1995, she received an Outstanding Alumni Award from Iowa State University. In 2005, she was selected as outstanding woman in the arts by the YWCA.

Over the past thirty-five years as a film/video artist, I’ve created experimental and art films, videos, animations, installations, and interactive multimedia pieces. My films are visual poems, often revolving around a character exploring an environment or situation. My recent work examines nature through the lens of time and considers our relationship to the spaces and environments we inhabit. These video poems amplify moments and gestures not always visible to the naked eye.Breathing Room, 2009, explores growth, decay and transformation. The interplay of quiet time-lapse, intercut with the riot of colors, builds a visual rhythm in parallel to music. This large scale projection fills an urban window with animated images of nature. The animation technique that I invented for shooting multiples of flowers makes the still environments pulsate with energy. As an artist/animator, I find magic in that space between the frames. My technique of creating films one frame at a time by analyzing the underlying visual structure is a methodical manner of generating imagery. Energy is revealed by animating similar and dissimilar shapes, colors, and forms, and then playing them at “normal” film speed. It’s not the actual shapes on an individual video frame that build meaning, but the differences in shape - between the frames - that creates the energy. Many artists have used nature as their inspiration. What makes my work unique is my form: creating videos for large scale projection (at festivals, in auditoriums, and in windows of public spaces). By taking the familiar, and reanimating it, using the lens of time to build a visual rhythm, those familiar elements are elevated in importance, and help to set a public agenda of concern for balance in our natural and managed landscapes.


OCTOBER SURPRISE10 minutesShot on 16mm Film, Presented on DVD2009

JOHN HARPER PHILBIN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, Film & Video ProductionGVSU School of Communications

EDUCATION:1995 M.F.A. Film Production, Southern Illinois University1979 B.A. Broadcasting & Film, University of Iowa

After four years of college, John Philbin spent eleven years in Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles working as a video editor, camera operator and writer and director of independent films. The Law of Nature, a documentary about Yosemite National Park rangers, aired nationally on PBS in 1986. After completing his graduate degree in 1975, Philbin joined the faculty of the School of Communications at Grand Valley State University where he teaches film and video production. Philbin also runs GVSU’s annual Summer Film Project bringing students, faculty and industry professionals together to collaborate on the production of a movie.

After making ten half-hour narrative films, Philbin produced and directed his first feature-length motion picture, To Live and Die in Dixie. The crime/courtroom drama won Best Thriller at the 2008 Illinois International Film Festival and Best Feature Film at the 2009 Flint Film Festival.

October Surprise (2009, 10 minutes, Harper Philbin) was shot entirely on a soundstage at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. When a scandal threatens to bring down a presidential candidate, two television journalists race against the clock to verify the story before it impacts the election. This short film explores media manipulation and politics, illustrating how seeing is not believing in the digital age. The script was originally constructed for a video game called Red Carpet Rescue which allows players to re-edit the narrative by choosing alternative scenes and change the outcome of the story.

OCTOBER SURPRISE10 minutesShot on 16mm Film, Presented on DVD2009


FOCUS ON THE FAMILY8’ x 15’ Single-channel video installation2007

KIM LYNNE ROBERTSASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, Film & Video ProductionGVSU School of Communications

EDUCATION:1996 M.F.A. Video, School of the Art Institute of Chicago1994 B.F.A. Sculpture/Video Installation,Kendall College of Art & Design

Kim Roberts’ primary artistic work takes the form of installation and experimental video. Through intricate relationships between video and objects, her installations raise questions and evoke complex feelings regarding social institutions and cultural privilege. Her most recent video installations reach opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, evoking both laughter and tears. Created for the inaugural 2009 ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Giggling Babies explored the pleasure and joy of laughter and its contagious qualities. In 2007, Roberts created Focus on the Family, a five-station interactive documentary installation depicting interviews of families and victims of hate crime due to sexual orientation. In the same year, she also produced a video documentation of a conference called Restorative Justice: How Michigan’s Prison System Destroys Hope. Her latest challenges involved producing Grand Valley’s most recent Summer Film Projects, The Darkroom (2009) and Horizontal Accidents in 2010.Roberts joined the faculty of the School of Communications at Grand Valley State University in 2005 where, as an Associate Professor for the Film and Video Production major, she teaches courses in beginning and inter-mediate video production, new media, and film and video experimental art.

My video work most often starts from a single encounter with an object or image. The moment then triggers a series of imagined juxtapositions of light, color, sound, and movement into unexpected spaces.

The substance of the work trickles in from a growing stream of voices where I take on the role of megaphone, channeling their stories and increasing the volume. The integration of documentary form and symbolic elements begin to collide upon each other and reveal a truth not before recognized.

I often times force form and function together to such a degree that neither is identifiable to me in the exhibited work. I question whether I’ve done justice to those voices or if anything has changed as a result. It rarely feels finished.

And that’s as it should be.

Art making is a process that begins with an encounter and travels with the heart and soul in tow, leaving things clearer than we found them, but never finished. It is my hope that viewers of the work are lured in by the dancing light and color, open to grappling with new truths and challenged by the unexpected space they find themselves in.


DONT CRUSH2 1/4” x 7/8” x 1/4”Sterling, Glass, Paper Label and Rubber2010

photo: Krystal Rauwerda

BEVERLY J. SELEYPROFESSOR, MetalsmithingGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:1972 M.F.A. Michigan State University1970 B.F.A. Michigan State University

Beverly J. Seley is a professor in the Department of Art & Design and coordinates the Jewelry/Metalsmithing program at Grand Valley State University where she has taught for thirty eight years. She holds MFA, BFA and BS degrees from Michigan State University and has completed post-graduate work at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. She has exhibited her work throughout the Midwest and Northeastern United States as well as internationally.

My work has consistently dealt with the wearable, the human body as the pedestal and daily events as the context. These pieces are created as “medals” for those who are having a bad day, a tough week, or a difficult life. Often this sadness, loneliness or frustration goes unnoticed even to those who are close. Made from package stickers whose purpose is to assure a safe journey, these medals offer to others a reminder of this fragile condition and hopefully, to the wearer, a safer and kinder journey through the day. In an attempt to emphasize the message, the medals are constructed with delicate materials (paper sticker, glass, fine silver) held together with a tension set using rubber o-rings.


The Family Portrait Project94” x 30” Photograph2010

STAFFORD HIROSHI SMITHASSISTANT PROFESSOR, PhotographyGVSU School of Communications

EDUCATION:2004 M.F.A. Photography, Cornell University1987 B.A. Studio Art/PrintmakingWesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut

Much of Stafford Smith’s photography work revolves around the family and interpersonal relationships within it. In his earlier work, he explored the hidden dynamics, tensions and frustrations lurking beneath the surface. His latest project involves an examination of American families in the early 21st century. Entitled The Family Portrait Project, this new body of work seeks to redefine the family portrait and to address the concept of the photograph as a document of proof. Smith joined the faculty at Grand Valley State University in 2008 after years of training, teaching and field practice in broadcast journalism. He has participated in many group and solo exhibitions across the nation, and his images have been published widely.

The camera and the multitude of images it produces have created new rituals from which photography has no escape. Foremost among these is the recording of a family’s happy moments at events like birthdays and reunions. However, as the definition of the family has recently evolved, the cultural codes that influence these rituals have weakened. What was once the nuclear family with its own biological children has morphed into an assemblage of ever increasing diversity.Today’s family appropriates and undermines traditional ideas, re-contextualizes race, age, lifestyle and beliefs, and is reshaping the face of America. Photography has been slow to acknowledge this as it lumbers along with representational styles still firmly rooted in the 19th century.

My current portfolio, The Family Portrait Project, is a post-photographic digital representation of the family. It seeks to deconstruct codes of how a family should be portrayed by attacking the ritual of the portrait process. My subjects are put through a process that is unfamiliar in order to confound the cultural codes of posing. Each member is photographed individually with no idea how they will be arranged in the finished work. The ritual is thus disrupted and we at last break away from an outdated paradigm. This process lays bare the constructed reality inherent in all photographs, abandoning naive notions about truth and meeting cultural expectations. It portrays the family as a collection of unique individuals, yet bound by ties represented through formal elements to create a group identity. These ties may be of blood, love, a sense of obligation, or purely legal in nature. Spectators are free to engage with these portraits and reach their own conclusions.


MORTUARY STATUARY I (DETAIL)10” x 8”Digital Photography2008-2009

KIRSTEN STROMASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, Art HistoryGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:1999 Ph.D. History of Art, University of Iowa 1995 M.F.A. Modern Art History, Theory & CriticismSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago1993 B.F.A. History of Art & ArchitectureUniversity of Illinois at Chicago

Kirsten Strom is an Associate Professor of Art History in the Art & Design Department at Grand Valley State University, where she teaches courses in Contemporary Art, Surrealism, Asian Art, Nineteenth-Century European Art, and Postmodern Theory. She has published and presented papers on topics including Surrealist films, “dance anthropology,” postmodern trends in popular music, and contemporary graphic design. She is also an artist and occasional curator.

Mortuary Statuary is an ongoing body of photographic work documenting aesthetic tendencies in funerary monuments. At present, it includes several hundred images taken in cemeteries in Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, and Montréal. Perhaps inevitably, as the images have been amassed, patterns emerged. Some are photographic, the result of persistent compositional preferences. Others are more broadly cultural and historical in nature, potentially offering insight into pervasive attitudes toward the visualizing of mourning and memory. While local variations are indeed culturally significant—there are historical reasons, for example, why the Virgin Mary features more prominently in Montréal than in Iowa City —one finds nevertheless that a number of very particular codes made widespread in the west in the nineteenth century have continued to dominate the visual and symbolic languages of North American tombs into the present day. Among the elements of these codes are a nostalgic reference to the fallen empires of antiquity, presumably as a metaphor for the noble but fleeting nature of mortal lives; the installation of figures, usually female, functioning as perpetual surrogate mourners; and melancholy allusions to an afterlife mediated by a sense of loss among the living.

The cemeteries themselves are mortuary gardens, designed and maintained to highlight the cycle of the seasons, which is ultimately that of life and death. The varying degrees of impressiveness in these monuments, however, poignantly indicate that very worldly factors, such as class, continue to visibly play themselves out among the dead.


DETROIT POPULATION SHIFT18” x 34” x 22”Cast and CNC Machined Aluminum2009

photo: Tim Thayer

NORWOOD VIVIANOASSISTANT PROFESSOR, SculptureGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:1998 M.F.A. Sculpture, Cranbrook Academy of Art1995 B.F.A. Sculpture, Alfred University

Norwood Viviano is the Sculpture Emphasis Coordinator in the Department of Art & Design at Grand Valley State University and is responsible for a full service foundry and fabrication studio. Viviano utilizes digital 3D modeling and printing technology in combination with ancient metal casting processes to create his sculptural works. His quest to push the limits of rapid prototyping technology (originally designed for the automotive industry) has led to collaborative efforts with engineers and industry specialists. Viviano is known for his First Generation Artifacts, a body of work that explores the desiccation of Italian immigrant heirlooms over time. His most recent research and creative interests include issues related to industry and population shift in the manufacturing cities of Michigan. He has been an Artist-in-Residence at the Royal College of Art, London, Ox-Bow School Art and Artists’ Residency, Saugatuck, Michigan and a Studio Committee Member at the SIGRAPH Technology Conference, Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited at Zolla/Lieberman Galley, Chicago; Esther Claypool Gallery, Seattle; Revolution Gallery, Ferndale, Michigan and the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, Staten Island, New York.

DETROIT POPULATION SHIFT (DETAIL)18” x 34” x 22”Cast and CNC Machined Aluminum2009

Recasting Michigan is a series of sculptures and digital prints examining issues related to industry and population shift in the manufacturing cities of Michigan. In both the prints and sculptures, I am exploring land use, boundaries, and time through line and form. The contours are defined by geography, the city’s industry, and the absence of the adjoining cities. The extrusion of the contour connects the age of the cities and their population changes over time. By comparing the changes in shape, viewers are able to draw conclusions about the past importance of industry in the region as well as its future relevance.

The sculptures and prints reference the role of industry in urban expansion, population growth and decline. The material process and rapid prototyping initially designed for the automotive industry link to the manufacturing past and future potential of Michigan. I generate patterns for these pieces using computer-based three-dimensional modeling programs before outputting them in wax or resin.


COMPANION3” x 4” x 12”Ceramics, (Raku) Crochet thread2010

KATALINZASZLAVIKASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, Art EducationGVSU Department of Art & Design

EDUCATION:2006 Ed.D. Art Education, University of Illinois, Urbana-ChampaignM.A. Art Education, University of Illinois, Urbana-ChampaignB.A. Art Education, Hungarian College of Applied Arts, Budapest

Katalin Zaszlavic joined GVSU’s Art & Design faculty while completing her advanced degree in art education. She is active in professional associations such as the National Art Education Association and the International Society for Education through Art. She was the Hungarian coordinator of the European Union’s Socrates Project for three years. While Zaszlavic teaches the theory and application of art education, she also explores her own art using a variety of materials.

The form of this art work has its origins in traditional Hungarian wooden grave-posts that represent the male and female members of life-long and afterlife relationships. To represent the thread of life, I’ve used a white cotton crochet thread ball (front) that is continuously crocheted away from the female side and collected in the back of the male (reverse).

Companion is one in a series of works that embody reflections of my life in my hometown of Szentendre, Hungary. These creations also remind me of my roots.


MULTiMEDiAIII

THE DEPARTMENT OF ART & DESIGN AND SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS FACULTY CELEBRATE GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY’S 50TH ANNIVERSARYThe GVSU Art Gallery invites former outstanding students to showcase new work.


William Lieberman, B.A., Philosophy ’79, is the owner and director of Zolla/Lieberman in the River North neighborhood of Chicago, an influ- ential contemporary art gallery founded by his mother Roberta in 1976. The gallery represents more than thirty artists from across the nation.

Lieberman enrolled in his first art class in 1976, studying ceramics while participating in the GVSC intercollegiate soccer program. Two ceramic instructors inspired him to harness his energy and artistic potential by expressing himself through art. He first realized that he possessed the passion and skill to sell art by successfully marketing one hundred pots to fellow students, teachers and art enthusiasts during a single-day sale at the student center. Lieberman explains, “My education at Grand Valley piqued my interest in ceramics, which then developed into a broader interest in contemporary art. It also helped springboard my career as an art dealer and my passion as an art collector.”

After graduation, Lieberman continued his education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Northeastern Illinois University. When Zolla/Lieberman Gallery more than tripled its space in 1980, he began working there, assuming responsibility for monthly gallery installations. His passionate and enthusiastic interaction with many artists increasingly directed him towards a career in the art world.

Lieberman reconnected with Grand Valley in 1997 when Henry Matthews, GVSU’s Director of Galleries and Collections, helped to acquire a sculpture by Deborah Butterfield – a key artist represented by Zolla/Lieberman – for Grand Rapids’ Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. In appreciation of Matthews and his team’s work in growing the university’s collection of art from 750 to 9,500 works, Zolla/Lieberman Gallery and the Lieberman family donated forty museum-quality works to the university that are displayed throughout buildings on both the Allendale and Grand Rapids campuses.

When I was asked to write an introductory essay for an alumni artist invitational exhibition organized for winter 2011 in celebration of Grand Valley State University 50th anniversary, I initially wondered what qualified me to do so. When I reviewed the submitted works, however, it slowly dawned on me how much the university, its faculty and my fellow alumni influenced my career and life as an art dealer and collector. My contact with the university has increased over time as I’ve hosted faculty exhibitions at my gallery, followed the careers of budding artists, helped to build the university’s art collections, juried exhibitions throughout the Midwest, and followed the progress of my classmates. Grand Valley State University and its connections are never far from my work.

The career of my fellow alumnus Richard Kooyman, B.F.A. ’79 illustrates the strong influence exerted by the university that seems to be a common thread between many artists who got their start at GVSU. In 1979, when Kooyman graduated from what was then called the Grand Valley State Colleges, the Ceramics Art Studio Building housed students enrolled in both the Thomas Jefferson College and the College of Arts and Sciences. These two educational units employed varied teaching methods based on quite different philosophies – freewheeling individual study and interdisciplinary learning vs. traditional education, but their joint presence in one building made for a rich environment in which to study and create art. Kooyman’s entry point to the art world was the decision to take an elective studio class. He liked working with his hands and felt an immediate connection with the discipline. “At the clay studio,” Richard told me, “there was sense of community.” It was a separate world, and he was drawn to that. “It was like I had a purpose. It was such a rich experience.”

Kooyman believes that the making of objects of art is the process of embodying ideas through materials. “What a painting is, or what a ceramic vessel or a sculpture can be, is connected by this aspect of making or bringing an idea into fruition. This thread running through my work as a full time professional artist began at Grand Valley State with the great instructional guidance I received along with the focus on hands-on learning.”

ESSAYWILLIAM LIEBERMAN

Kooyman went on to receive a M.F.A. in ceramics and drawing from Ohio State University in 1982, but he attributes the impetus to continue his career in art to the diverse learning environment at Grand Valley. He has subsequently pursued dual interests in fine art through his current practice as a painter, and in fine craft through woodworking, including a stint as a wooden boat builder. For the past twelve years, Kooyman and his wife, artist Melanie Parke, have lived in Kaleva, Michigan, an old railroad town in the northern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula where their studio is a former livestock feed store building. He is currently working on a series of paintings evoking the ostentation of 17th century Dutch still life painting.

The exhibition MULTiMEDiA III is an adventurous project - an alumni invitational that reconnects former students like Kooyman with their university by showcasing their new work in the GVSU Art Gallery. The show follows two exhibitions by current faculty members mounted last fall. The scope of the work is extensive, displaying contemporary art created in a wide array of media by alumni who graduated over the last thirty years. It ranges from digital computer manipulated photographs to obsessively detailed fine metalwork.

After reviewing some of the work as it was being assembled, two fascinating trends caught my attention that seemed consistently present in spite of the diverse media and use of materials. They appear to reflect both a shared experience of having attended college in a largely rural agricultural setting, and an active engagement with the questions and issues that are present in everyday life. For instance, I’ve noticed that these Grand Valley State University alumni often utilize natural imagery in their work, and do so more frequently than many artists who’ve studied in urban settings. The artists’ encounter with the natural world is used to elicit a variety of emotional responses. One end of this spectrum is illustrated by Dan Watts’ photographic documentation of the first rays of sun hitting the surf in Dawn’s First Light and in Kooyman’s Ostentatious Still Life #2, a colorful canvas of a vase of flowers filtered through the luscious qualities of paint.

Other works similarly celebrate the beauty of nature by focusing on quiet moments and intimate details. These include Ashley Lieber’s freeze-dried moss work, Moss for Meditation; Jason Rutter’s pigment transfer print, Mornings In The Fall; Jeremy Brooks’ mixed media installation, Fawn; and Shilin Hora-Perez’s Seed Quilt, created from plant seeds, thread and biodegradable fabric.

Other artists take us in a darker direction, while still using natural surroundings as a point of departure. Patrick Millard’s image of a head floating in a pond of water, Patience within the Antechamber, is simultaneously meditative and threatening. Ben DeHaan’s digital photograph Falling and Floating, echoes a similar theme of unease with its depiction of a balloonist holding scissors, getting ready to cut the rope anchoring him to the ground. Amy Feighley-Lee’s Untitled Diptych is a watercolor and collage work of disembodied eyeballs, explosions of skulls amidst bouquets of fruit, swooping birds, and galloping horses. Amy Stienbarger’s Orifice is a darkly humorous work of cast plastic and wax filling-ridden teeth. It also plays with exposing elements by isolating them outside of their natural interior space, urging viewers to lean in closer and indulge their curiosity of the texture of decay.

A more urban take on the out-of-doors is seen in Jo Hormuth’s Cabrini-Green, Chicago - March 26, 2006, an abstract photo-documentation of the exposed skeletal structures in a ruined Chicago public housing project, while Paul Amenta’s video images of people brandishing rifles with bayonets within dismantled natural history dioramas, taken in the old Grand Rapids Public Museum during his temporary art installation project entitled Michigan - Land of Riches, critique the cultural ideology of museum display. In summary, whether the works are personal or rhetorical, small- or large-scale, Grand Valley State University can be proud of its artist alumni who are making eloquent contributions to the world of art. In turn, their accomplishments speak volumes about the quality of the education they received.

MULTiMEDiA III Celebrating 50 Years of Shaping Lives 72

Nate Abramowski

Paul Amenta

Joel Berry

Jeremy Brooks

Jackie Cuppy

Ben DeHaan

Amy Feigley-Lee

Dean Foster

Jesse Gregg

Shilin Hora

Jo Hormuth

David Huang

Robyn Kane-Haberkorn

Richard Kooyman

Ashley Lieber

Kimberly Main Knoper

Hubert Massey

Patrick Millard

Jodie Mohrhardt

Briana Trudell

Michael Pfleghaar

Jenny Pope

Mark Rumsey

Jason D. Rutter

Sharon Sandberg

Amanda Stark

Amy Stienbarger

Julie Upmeyer

Dan Watts

THE DEPARTMENT OF ART & DESIGN AND SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS FACULTY CELEBRATE GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY’S 50TH ANNIVERSARYThe GVSU Art Gallery invites former outstanding students to showcase new work.

MONDAY JAN. 10 - FRiDAY FEB. 25, 2011

OPENiNG RECEPTiON: THURSDAY JAN. 13

5-7PM

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(FROM THE SERIES: QUIET MEN), TRAVELER45” x 10”Carbon Pigment Print2009

(FROM THE SERIES: QUIET MEN), FIREFIGHTER45” x 10”Carbon Pigment Print2009

NATE ABRAMOWSKIGrand Rapids, Michigan

EDUCATION:2009 M.F.A., Photography Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA2005 B.S., Film Production, B.S., PhotographyGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Nate Abramowski has been working in various mediums for the past several years and recently focused on photography as his primary form of artistic expression. Following his undergraduate education, Abramowski choose to work within the television and film industry in New York City. After achieving noteworthy commercial success, he completed his MFA in 2009 and strives to contribute to the arts on all levels.

In spite of their usual facade of bravado, men often find themselves uncertain and removed. The Quiet Men at hand are caught in an interrupted state that displaces their assumed role as the leader and instigator. I explore these moments of vulnerability and reflection, challenge preconceptions and acknowledge a more complex range of emotions.


COLLABORATOR: TERRY JOHNSTONMICHIGAN - LAND OF RICHES, PHOTO OF TOM CLINTONDimensions variableVideo2010


PAUL AMENTAGrand Rapids, Michigan

EDUCATION:2000 M.F.A., Fine ArtsSchool of Visual Arts, New York, NY1995 B.F.A., Sculpture & Printmaking Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Paul Amenta was born in Hammond, Indiana and moved to West Michigan when he was thirteen. He attended Grand Valley State University and received a B.F.A. in Sculpture and Printmaking. After a brief stint in Seattle, Washington and a false-start in the graduate program at the University of Indiana at Bloomington, he moved to New York City to attend the School of Visual Arts where he earned a M.F.A. in Fine Arts. He spent eight years in New York and was represented by the Marvelli Gallery. Amenta returned to Grand Rapids in 2006 where he is currently an adjunct professor at Kendall College of Art and Design, teaching courses in the Sculpture & Functional Art and Industrial Design departments. His creative activities have grown to include organizing and curating large collaborative exhibitions in vacant structures in the Grand Rapids area including the ActiveSite projects (07-09), Michigan - Land of Riches and the newly formed non-profit SiTE:LAB.

COLLABORATOR: TERRY JOHNSTONMICHIGAN - LAND OF RICHES, PHOTO OF PAUL AMENTA(DETAIL)Dimensions variableVideo2010

This video project consists of 163 images shot on-site at the old Grand Rapids Public Museum in a defunct moose diorama, long after the taxidermy specimens had been extracted in 1994. Terry Johnston and I photographed this project in conjunction with the Michigan - Land of Riches installation project that I curated at the old Grand Rapids Public Museum building in April 2010.

The subjects in these images consist of the artists, collaborators, museum staff and volunteers who participated in creating the exhibition. Each individual posed with their choice of one of four rifles from the Public Museum’s permanent collection. Originally we planned to dictate their poses, but what became far more interesting was the unique way each subject naturally responded once they held the gun in their hands. Their choices were a 16th century Turkish rifle, an American Civil War era rifle with bayonet, a WWII Japanese rifle with bayonet and a WWI German rifle with bayonet.

UNTITLED PANEL 18” x 24” Acrylic on Panel2010


JOEL BERRYGrand Rapids, Michigan

EDUCATION:2005 B.F.A., Printmaking Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

UNTITLED PANEL (DETAIL)18” x 24” Acrylic on Panel2010

The accumulation of black and white paint within this work serves as a visual exploration of the dichotomous relationship between chance occurrence and purposeful action. Two different processes are balanced to dictate the outcome of each. The preliminary treatment of surfaces represents a chance operation and involves the limitation of control over visual results. Impulsive placement of liquid paint and the use of gravity to arbitrarily push and pull it across a surface allows the oppositional elements to react to one another unpredictably.

By contrast, the application of dots and concentric circles is deliberate, calling attention to extensive control and determination with paint, accepting the initial layer as a foundation for premeditated pattern. This divergence in processes is parallel to the reality of human exper-ience, a balance between “what we do” and “what happens to us.”

Mirroring this metaphor, the consistent use of black and white paint offers a direct visual correlation to the constant play of positive and negative that defines our consciousness. The resulting painting is a meditation on the nature of being.

Working with fluid paint allows for a volatility that is fundamental to the initial impulsive work as well as the immediate intricacy involved in the consequent focused application of drops. Additionally, the fullest contrast and richness of value possible are ideal for both processes. My technique has evolved to produce efficiency in the use of materials and to minimize mistakes. It is this striving for balance within visual convergence that imparts a calming, mindful awareness and a retreat from the superficiality and anxiety of life. My hope is that these positive results are passed on to the viewer, instilling some new sense of balance or internal peace.

FAWN 22” x 22” x 44” Mixed Media2007


JEREMY BROOKSHazel Park, Michigan

EDUCATION:2007 M.F.A. Ceramic ArtNew York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY2001 B.F.A., Art and Design (Departmental Honors)Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Jeremy R. Brooks was born in Detroit, MI in 1979. He is part of a generation of young makers that are redefining the way clay is used. His work moves beyond the traditions and material restraints of clay by incorporating a variety of materials, and dealing with larger thematic issues than those typically addressed by the ceramics community. At its best, his work combines conceptual vigor, technical skill and virtuosity, intellect and humor. After earning his MFA degree at Alfred, Brooks worked as a Resident Artist at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA from 2007-2008. He has since been awarded the title of Emerging Artist by the National Council on Education of the Ceramic Arts for 2011, and by the periodical Ceramics Monthly in 2008. In 2010, he was honored as the USA Country Guest of Honor at the XXIst International Biennial of Vallauris, Magnelli / Ceramic Museum in Vallauris, France. Brooks exhibits his work both nationally and internationally and currently works in his studio full-time.

There is a space that exists upon the tip-of-the-tongue, a site of profound intrinsic curiosity. Taste aside, it is concerned with imminence and inaccessibility, language and memory. Sometimes the first word out of our mouth is hardly a word at all, but rather an inarticulate sound that is more closely related to what we would identify as gesture. Suspended, held at the cusp of verbalization, there is something there and you feel it strongly. It is a haunting moment - it is a structure of feeling. The investigation of such a quality, one that is more properly sensuous than cognitive in the scope and depth of inquiry, is one at the core of my work and studio practice.

WISH8.5” x 11”Mixed Media Collage 2010


JACKIE CUPPYGrand Rapids, Michigan

EDUCATION:1987 B.F.A., Graphic DesignGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

My art often focuses on intangible feelings and concepts such as diversity, peace, passion, faith and spirit. I am interested in symbolism and often include it in my artwork. This is based on personal experience or research through my growing library on the subject. I mainly work in a collage style that mixes and assembles different media such as paint, pastels, cut paper, digital media and found objects. My art has evolved over the years from using cut paper techniques to digital collage. Currently, I am exploring combining both traditional and digital materials. Although drawings, texture, color and shapes are combined into my artwork, design remains paramount. By combining a variety of materials, I hope to reflect on how we as individuals are made up of many facets that make up a whole. This whole further reflects how we are all connected through the intangible concepts embodied in my art.

Jackie Cuppy lives in Cherry Hill historic district of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she currently serves as Creative Services Manger for Institutional Marketing at Grand Valley State University. Her art is created with collage techniques that use both traditional and digital materials. Her themes are often based on feelings and concepts that are intangible, such as passion, peace, unity, faith and spirit.

Her “Wish” series was created out of such an intangible idea. Since her family is large, they draw names for gift giving each Christmas. Every year they gather around the dining room table at their parent’s house in Detroit after Thanksgiving dinner and create lists to post on a large corkboard for “Kris Kringle” to take when they aren’t looking. For the past twenty years, “world peace” has topped Cuppy’s list. She has received many creative “World Peace” gifts over the years in response and it’s always a topic of discussion. This year, Cuppy created the wish of “World Peace” in an art form for her series of the “Wish.”

FALLING AND FLOATING10” x 8”Digital Print2010


BEN (ANDY) DEHAANPortland, Maine

EDUCATION:2009 B.A., PhotographyGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Ben DeHaan grew up in a small town near Grand Rapids, MI. He has lived in London and Nashville, and now currently resides in Portland, ME. His work tends to focus on the ambiguity between expectation and reality while incorporating themes of escapism, identity, and fantasy – notions that seem to become involved in this dichotomy. DeHaan is interested in the play of perception and how this affects our outlook on the world around us. His interest in these relationships stems from what initially drew him to photography - the notion of replicating the real while simultaneously transforming it into something else. Through his work in fashion and portraiture, DeHaan strives for a unique and emotional quality while still maintaining conceptual focus.

Falling and Floating is the first image from a new series in which I am addressing our notion of expectations, desire, and reality. I am interested in the ambiguity that occurs with these relationships and how this affects the construction of dreams and identities. Where do we allow our dreams to take us, how do they change, and what happens when we wake up? Do we struggle with the fear of the unforeseen or do we let go and cope with the unexpected?

FALLING AND FLOATING (SKETCH DETAIL)10” x 8”Digital Print2010

UNTITLED DIPTYCH50” x 36”Wallpaper and Found Image Collage on E-Board, Epoxy Resin2010


AMY FEIGLEY-LEEDetroit, Michigan

EDUCATION:2007 M.F.A., Sculpture Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI2002 B.F.A., SculptureGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Amy Feigley-Lee is a sculptor and collage artist residing in Detroit. She received her M.F.A. degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2007, and her B.F.A. degree from Grand Valley State University. She is currently a special lecturer in studio art at Oakland University, as well as an instructor for the Detroit non-profit organization ‘Art Road’. Feigley-Lee’s work has been exhibited both nationally as well as internationally. Selected exhibitions include: Andres Serrano Picks Detroit, Center Gallery, College for Creative Studies, Detroit; Surface, at the Gallery Project, Ann Arbor, MI; Pink, Paul Kotula Projects, Ferndale, MI; Daimler Chrysler Emerging Artist Exhibition, Daimler Chrysler Headquarters, Berlin, Germany; and Paranoia at the Freud Museum in London, England.

I create fantastic landscape collages. Composed of layers of wallpaper, found images, and epoxy resin, the landscapes contain images of things that are considered, such as bones, intestines and eyeballs. I unify these disparate images through changes in the transparency of the images and by creating a glossed-over surface treatment so that the elements can be considered together, as part of the same narrative.

RECONCILED PROTECTION9.5” x 8”x 3”Porcelain Bone China and Stoneware2009


DEAN FOSTERMissoula, Montana

EDUCATION:2009 B.F.A., CeramicsGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Born and raised in West Michigan, Foster received his B.F.A. in Ceramics from Grand Valley State University. He is now pursuing his M.F.A. degree in ceramics at the University of Montana. While attending GVSU, Foster was one of the founding members of the Contemporary Ceramics Association and that organization’s president for three years. He participated in the World Ceramics Biennale in South Korea in the summer of 2009.

Clay has held close relations with humans since the ceramic objects first entered the home. Each ceramic piece can create a personal memory for the maker and receiver. This possibility for deep personal connection is why I choose to work within this medium. I’m interested in the significance of memories, and their implications. The inspirations for my sculpture come from a recollection of my own past - made square through clay.

Exploring my own memories, I create sculptures that reference my experiences. Using the clay as a surrogate for my body, I manipulate the form and alter the shape of the clay to represent my changes, physically and emotionally. A violent memory of being physically struck in the head by a 2x4 is reconciled with the flame of the kiln.

My process starts with a mold made from the same object that changed and altered my body - the 2x4. When making sculpture, I force the clay into the mold. Next, repetitive carving becomes a personal meditative process that refines the clay’s shape. This juxtaposition of violent molding and pensive carving are embraced by the intricate pattern of a doily. Historically used to protect fine furniture, it now references the fragility of memories and their need for protection. There is a relationship between the aggressive creation of the sculptures and the delicate doily that relates the clay as my conceptual substitute. While carving the blocks, I enter a place where I can focus on my good and bad memories, and feel in control. I create the clay body, I mold the clay, and I am in control through to the firing. This sense of control allows me to focus on my intangible thoughts, working them out in clay. The blocks are like my memories, guarded and strong, yet personal and fragile.

UNTITLED (DETAIL)Dimensions variableStop-motion Animation Film


JESSE GREGGSanta Monica, CA

EDUCATION:2008 M.F.A., Experimental AnimationCalifornia Institute for the Arts, Valencia, CA 2001 B.F.A., IllustrationGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Jesse Gregg currently works with Duck Studios in Santa Monica, CA and Laika Studios in Portland, OR. He has been involved in gallery shows and film screenings across the U.S. and in Eastern Europe. His art uses contemporary techniques to achieve a surreal antiquated aesthetic in both static and in motion, often the result of obsessive research and experimentation.

UNTITLED (DETAIL)Dimensions variableStop-motion Animation Film

As artists, we are visual philosophers - expressionary scientists interpreting Theory, Dream, Reality and Memory into the way we perceive it. Memory comes in one-sided patchwork quilts. Dreams can be over-saturated, monochromatic or even both. Reality is often more abstract than Theory - all of which can make sense to the masses or purely to the individual in ways that are both layered or direct.

SEED QUILT (DETAIL)12’ x 6’Seeds, Thread, Biodegradable Fabric, Water Based Glue2009


SHILIN HORAMontreal, QuébecCanada

EDUCATION:2002 B.F.A., PrintmakingGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Shilin Hora was born in Stevensville, Michigan in 1976. After graduating from Grand Valley State University, she quickly established her voice as an artist, creating meticulous works of art using objects found in nature (i.e. seeds, stones, leaves & insect wings). After moving to Montreal in 2004, Hora founded GROW STUDIO, an artist’s collaborative organization. As the director, she creates projects like the Seed Quilt that encourages artists and community members to team up to discover the presence of nature in the city. She is currently conducting Seed Quilt Workshops for the city of Montreal and works part-time as a fundraiser for Tyndale St. Georges Community Centre. Hora illustrated poet Patricia Clark`s 2009 chapbook Given The Trees published by Voices from the American Land, Inc., and is developing other book art with writers in Canada and United States. Her art work is housed in private, university and museum collections throughout Canada, United States and England. To view Hora’s current work, please visit www.growstudio.org and www.shilinhora.com.

My goal as an artist is to encourage people to explore our natural world and at the same time facilitate a conversation between us and nature.

I use the world of plants, animals and landscapes as a means to investigate the relationship that exists between nature and humans. I choose sculptural installations, drawing, and printmaking as mediums for studying and bringing sensitive awareness of nature to myself and my community. Through abstraction and rendering, via line and color, I try to communicate these relationships, findings and connections I have with the land in a curious and playful way. I often use collected natural objects like insect wings, seeds, and leaves in combination with drawing and printmaking. I juxtapose these found object with their abstraction as it introduces freedom to explode and capture the detail and impression of the objects I study. Through observation and play with seeds, caterpillars and trees, I discover my relationship with these beings, and thus my relationship to nature. My task at the drawing table or arrangement of an installation is to pursue this rapport, build an image about it and thus tell the story of the delicate connections I am driven to forge.

CABRINI-GREEN, CHICAGO - MARCH 26, 2006EDITION 3/15Photograph Printed with Pigment Inks on Archival Bamboo Paper13.25” x 17.75”2006


JO HORMUTHChicago, Illinois

EDUCATION:1983 M.F.A., The School of the Art Institute of Chicago1981 B.F.A., Painting & Printmaking Grand Valley State Colleges, Allendale Michigan

Jo Hormuth’s work has been widely exhibited across the Midwest and in Europe in both group and solo exhibitions – and is found in numerous public and private collections. Hormuth is currently a graduate advisor in Painting & Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is working on a major public art commission for Terminal #3 at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. She is represented by Gallery Kusseneers, Antwerp, Belgium.

How I Want My Work To Be: 1. It would be irreverent and…. 2. reverent in regard to art historical/formal/aesthetic 3. erotic 4. innocent 5. loud would be good…. 6. loud and quiet would be good 7. Throw in a time element, that would be good 8. It could be as long as necessary 9. Silly10. PROFOUND11. All things present in equal amounts and in no particular order

WHORLED FLOW #5933.75” x 3.5” x 3.5” Copper, Sterling Silver, 23-karat Gold Leaf2007


DAVID HUANGSand Lake, Michigan

EDUCATION:2001 B.F.A., magna cum laude, MetalsmithingGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI 1989-91 began BFA program Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA

David Huang was born in Grand Rapids in 1971. His work is both widely collected and published. Huang has exhibited across the nation and abroad in Seoul, South Korea.

WHORLED FLOW #593 (DETAIL)3.75” x 3.5” x 3.5” Copper, Sterling Silver, 23-karat Gold Leaf2007

With my hammered metal vessels, I am concentrating on form, color, and texture. I strive to create works that beg to be held and which glow with an inner light. In short, my vessels are about things I treasure; the natural and sensual world, skilled labor, timeless beauty, and the inner spirit made visible.

SACHICKO NECKPIECE2” x 18” Sterling Silver2010


ROBYN KANE-HABERKORNGrand Rapids, Michigan

EDUCATION:2004 B.F.A., Jewelry/MetalsmithingGrand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan

The focus of Robyn Kane Haberkorn’s artwork has consistently revolved around wearable art made from metal. Most recently she has concentrated on fabricating distinctive jewelry ranging from pieces acceptable for everyday wear to more unique, sculptural pieces reserved for special occasions. She retails her work at art fairs and several Michigan galleries.

In addition to her studio work, Kane-Haberkorn teaches in the jewelry department at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, and was honored to have the opportunity to teach 3-D Design this semester at Grand Valley State University. Having the opportunity and ability to share her passion has proven to be very rewarding for her.

Human interactions and emotions form the base and the most prominent thoughts impacting my work - a driving creative force caused by reflection on my surroundings. Acknowledgement of personal encounters is the source of my work. Wearable art is a form of expression and communication, interacting with both the wearer and the viewer. Metal has an alluring quality, capturing the attention of the viewer and seeking to liberate the wearer by producing a sense of elegance and individuality. Smooth surfaces complement the line quality and movement of the metal while various textures present energy consistent with the creation of the work, both of which are graceful and distinct. The fabrication and adornment of jewelry and wearable sculpture is powerful and captivating to me.

OSTENTATIOUS STILL LIFE #2 60” x 36”Oil on Canvas2010

RICHARD KOOYMANKaleva, Michigan

EDUCATION:1982 M.F.A., Ohio State University, Columbus, OH1979 B.F.A., CeramicsGrand Valley State Colleges, Allendale, MI

Richard Kooyman was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and received his B.F.A. degree from Grand Valley State University with a Merit Scholarship. He earned his M.F.A. degree from Ohio State University where he studied on a Full Fellowship. He has won numerous awards including the Sally Avery Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center, The Michigan Governor’s Art Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, and a Michigan Council for the Arts Grant. His work has been exhibited at the Art of the 20th Century Armory Exhibition in New York, the Ann Nathan Gallery, Manistee Art Institute, and the Charles Wutsum Museum. Frequent painting trips to Canada and New Mexico have developed a love for the painted surface represented in the work of Tom Thompson, Victor Higgins, and Fairfield Porter. Kooyman’s style of natural realism focuses on brush work and heightened color to express the emotion of place and time.

I continue to be interested in painting as a change of focus on the world through the power and lusciousness of paint. It is in the act of painting that I try to discover thought provoking aspects of science, nature, and history that find their visualization on the painted surface.

In my recent work, I like to ask a lot of questions. How do we look at the natural world and how is that emotional feeling best depicted? What does a painting actually do? What can it do? These are questions that are worked out on a daily basis in my studio.


MOSS FOR MEDITATION48” x 48”Freeze Dried Preserved Moss, Mixed Materials2010

ASHLEY LIEBERGrand Rapids, Michigan

EDUCATION:2010 MFA, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI2005 BFA, Sculpture, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Ashley Lieber’s work is an interdisciplinary calling focused on topics of sustainability. At the University of Michigan, she studied predominately in The School of Natural Resources & Environment, researching environmental psychology, ecological restoration, and urban agriculture while student teaching environmental literature.

In 2008, a creative research grant enabled her to live abroad in Central America, where she worked on an all women-owned and operated agro-eco farm, learning various practices of sustainable living and farming, while participating in a tropical reforestation effort.

Her creative work offers various visual, tactile, and often edible experiences, including ongoing aquatic ecosystems nested in desolate urban environments and gallery spaces; functional and ecologically designed hydroponic wall gardens that she teaches others to use for their benefit; planned social-ecological harvest events (or, happenings); and large scale installations of sculptural works in dialogue, commenting on conditions of urbanity. Her work provokes ideas about the intersection of art, ecology, and urban agriculture.

She recently relocated to Grand Rapids, where she works as an artist and continues research and writing on sustainable living and urban agriculture.

In recent years, many studies have emerged that show that, by experiencing nature, the mind and body are able to regenerate, restore, and heal at much more expedient rates, than without. Study of these findings has led me to think about how nature (and percepts of nature) can be integrated into our everyday lives.

Sometimes the work I make functions to produce edibles in a sustainable fashion, as seen in my horticultural installations. Others are created with the intention to inspire participation with, or ponder the health of, aquatic and forest ecosystems, which are threatened by industrial pollution and degradation.

We degrade the environment because the majority of societies and cities have been constructed in the illusion that we are separate from nature. We have come to think of nature as a separate entity, as existing over there and in designated spaces. Au contraire, humans are not separate from nature. We are nature, and though our environmental problems are complex, the vast majority of them can be summed up quite simply: we are taking too much, too quickly.

The goal of “eco-logical” art is to develop a functional awareness of the impact of human behavior on the environment, and the environment’s impact on humans. I aspire that my work will inspire viewers to make the vital connection between personal and ecological health.


CONTROL OF A ROBOTIC ARM BY NEURAL ACTIVITY8” x 6.5”Graphite, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe IllustratorUndated

KIMBERLY MAIN KNOPERJamaica Plain, Massachusetts

EDUCATION:2008 Certified Medical IllustratorThe Board of Certification of Medical Illustrators2006 M.A., Medical & Biological IllustrationJohns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD2004 B.F.A., Illustration, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

A Grand Rapids native, Main Knoper attended Grand Valley State University, graduating with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts with a concentration in illustration. She went on to graduate school at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and received a Master’s degree in Medical Illustration. Since her graduation in 2006, Main Knoper has been a medical illustrator for the New England Journal of Medicine. In addition to creating visual solutions for the print journal, she develops interactive modules, coding in ActionScript for the web-based journal. She also maintains a small independent medical illustration studio, Kimberly Main Studios (www.kimmain.com).

As a medical illustrator it is my job to be a visual problem solver as I collaborate, decipher, depict and convey ideas and concepts in medicine that would be impossible to represent in any other medium. It is my task to be a visual storyteller. This image was created in adherence to strict publishing deadlines, which allow only a short amount of time from research to the completion of the image. Engaging, didactic visuals that express scientific ideas and essential information are created in collaboration with authors and researchers for each article and illustration published. My desire to be challenged in the areas of art, visual communication, and scientific knowledge are therefore fulfilled and expanded by each illustration produced.

This illustration depicts an advance in medical technology. Monkeys are reported to use a robotic arm through impulses they produce in their motor cortex. An array of microelectrodes is placed in their brain and it monitors the action potentials of dozens of neurons simultaneously. Decoders, which use a variety of computational techniques, determine the direction of the limb movement from the neuronal activity and feed that back to the robot controller, which moves the robot arm in the desired direction.


SNOW AND ROCKS30” x 40”Charcoal on Paper1992

HUBERT MASSEYDetroit, Michigan

EDUCATION:1982 B.A., Fine ArtGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Massey successfully created Importing and Exporting of Knowledge, commissioned by GVSU for its downtown Grand Rapids DeVos Center. Massey has created many public artworks throughout the Detroit area, including an historical mural for the Michigan State Fairgrounds, and a granite petrograph carving for the IRS Midwest Computer Center. Genealogy, a 72 foot wide terrazzo floor, interprets the historical struggles of Africans and African Americans under the rotunda of Detroit’s Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. He is currently completing a fresco of downtown Detroit for the prestigious Detroit Athletic Club.

In addition to many awards, Massey’s alma mater honored him as one of three recipients of the distinguished Grand Valley Alumni Award, which recognizes alumni that have made significant achievements in their professional career.

While engaged in additional study at the University of London - Slade Institute of Fine Arts, Massey began to realize the importance of fine art made for architecture - how art could be intertwined with architectural projects at their inception, instead of as an afterthought as projects near completion.

After twelve years as a pictorial painter for Gannett Outdoor Sign Company while continuously refining his painting skills, Massey began studying art restoration and conservation, slowly learning the diverse fine art techniques used by old master painters. These skills were used in his monumental mural, The Death of Laocoön and his two sons Antiphas and Thymbraeus for Detroit’s Athenaeum Hotel. In 1995, Massey learned the almost lost art of fresco painting under the tutelage of Stephen Dimitroff and Lucienne Bloch, apprentices to Diego Rivera. Creating a fresco work on wet plaster challenges an artist’s ability to the fullest.

An artist should strive to understand his media. This includes understanding its origin and chemical makeup in order to utilize its full potential. In doing so, an artist will never be technically bound by the media, but instead, be boundless in expression.


EVENING REBOOT12” x 12”Carbon Pigment Print2007

PATIENCE WITHIN THE ANTECHAMBER12” x 12”Carbon Pigment Print2007

PATRICK MILLARDPittsburgh, Pennsylvania

EDUCATION:2008 M.A., PhotographySavannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA2005 B.A., PhotographyGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Their focus includes biotechnology, nanotechnology, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, renewable energies, gene therapy, cyber culture, and other post-human and trans-human philosophies.

Millard was artist in residence at Biosphere 2 (www,b2science.org) for June, 2010, where he worked on photographic, sound, and digital media projects, yielding a photographic portfolio of the Biosphere 2 structure and an album soon to be released on Innova Recording. The unique condition of Biosphere 2 as a natural hermetically-sealed and self-sustaining environ-ment, while being simultaneously powered by more than two acres of machinery, played on his continuing theme of organic and synthetic mergers.Millard currently works as Assistant Professor of Photography at Point Park University in Pittsburgh and as an instructor for The VASA Project’s online workshops (vasa-project.com).

Patrick Millard originated in the small town of Lamont, Michigan. He has continually gained recognition in national and international exhibitions. Millard began to show his work inside the virtual simulation world Second Life in 2008. These exhibitions expanded his ideas of simulation, virtual reality, and the synthetic future where physical objects give way to their virtual counterparts and their presence is valued entirely for their idea rather than place in space.

In 2009, his transition toward a more prominent virtual artistic presence led him to embark upon a photographic series that used the environment and society of Second Life as its theme and subject matter. Virtual Lens is an artistic and anthropological investigation into the life of the avatar, landscape of the sim environment, and experience of the virtual world. Millard curated exhibitions in 2010 for The VASA Project’s Online Gallery and Turing Gallery in Second Life that reflect upon contemporary global digital culture.

Patrick Millard’s work in photography, new media, and sound has resulted in a diversified portfolio that addresses ideas about media, digital culture, technology and the interactions that human beings have within their own synthetic environment.


PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA18” x 32”Mixed Medium 2009

JODIE MOHRHARDTWestminster, Colorado

EDUCATION:2007 B.F.A., Painting & Art EducationGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Jodie Mohrhardt is an artist and a middle school art teacher living in Colorado. She works primarily with acrylics, pen, and ink on maps, which include regions of the country and world where she has traveled. She creates a visual journal of the areas she has visited with drawings that highlight the key components of her experiences so that they can be remembered in a visual way. Jodie grew up in West Michigan and spent time living in Southern Africa and India for a short time while in school. She frequently visits India in the summers to lead high school students overseas as a tour guide. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, rock climbing, and many other outdoor sports.

“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” ~Benjamin Disraeli

I’ve always had a burning itch to travel the world around me, whether across the country or the world. This passion stems not only from the things I see but also from the connections and interactions I make with the unfamiliar world around me. I soak in the culture and visuals of the earth and embrace it as best I can.

Unfortunately, my obsession leaves me with bittersweet emotion upon my return. My memory slowly begins to become distorted and altered. I forget the native words I learned along with the names of places I visited, and the people I met. Timelines get twisted in my memory, and my fading recollections cause confusion and disorientation. Through my art, I try to capture the essence of this feeling by working with my memories and photographs to reconstruct important places, people, and memories I wish to retain.

I begin with maps of the specific place I want to remember. I illustrate my journey with vein-like routes drawn onto these maps, or that I transfer onto a painting. Added in pen and ink are specific images relating to the place’s history or my relationship to it. Some focus on the architecture from where I’ve passed through or spent time. I also use aerial views that, when combined with the maps, architectural drawings and flat images, create a skewed sense of place - a sense of perception from multiple points of view. Layers of information indicate the passage of time during my journeys.

This is the memory and the story of my travels based on what I’ve seen and been told. This is how I relive the past and look forward to the future.


APPLY24” x 36” Mixed Media on Canvas2010

MICHAEL PFLEGHAARGrand Rapids, Michigan

EDUCATION:2011 M.F.A. (pending)Art Institute of Boston, Lesley University, Boston, MA1989 B.F.A., Painting, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Pfleghaar made his home in Grand Rapids, Michigan after moving to the city in 1983 for his college education. Prior to receiving his degree from Grand Valley State University, he had a foundation year at Kendall College of Art & Design and spent one summer painting in Aix en Provence, France. For the last twenty years, he’s made a living primarily by sales of his paintings through commercial galleries in Michigan and California. He has supplemented his income by teaching adult painting workshops at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Ox-Bow Fine Arts Camp, the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts and Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. He is currently a MFA candidate (2011) at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, Boston, MA.

My interdisciplinary graduate program has provided me with the resources to direct my work to a more critical and mature level. The last year has brought much growth into my work and articulation of it. I’ve been developing the themes of object-hood, the link between art and design as well as materialism. My painting has also moved towards abstraction while still based on the same inspiration of objects. This process has made me more conscious of marks, the trace and of the painting as an object. My mark making has expanded from oil paint to collage, friskets, and spray paint. By leaving traces of objects, I force the viewer to fill in the missing information. Mimicking the design process, I see my role as an artist is to design the visual surfaces I utilize into an object.


MONARCH WATCH32” x 24”Color-Reduction Woodcut2009

JENNY POPEIthaca, New York

EDUCATION:2005 B.F.A., PrintmakingGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Jenny is a full-time artist. She travels around the country setting up a booth to sell her woodcuts. She migrated from Grand Rapids, MI to Ithaca, NY because she received a fellowship from The Ink Shop Printmaking Center after finishing her BFA at Grand Valley State University. Her ongoing projects include a children’s book about the history of the introduction of starlings from the UK to the USA; multi-block endangered animal woodcuts where the edition size is the number of the animals left in the wild; a suite about invasive animals and a timely series titled Global Warming Band-aids.

I enjoy the company of animals in life and in artwork. Invasive, endangered, and mythic animals uncurl themselves from my imagination in the form of woodcut prints. Most of my prints are “color-reduction woodcuts” which means I take one block of wood, draw an image onto the block, carve, and then print. Each printed color comes from carving away the previous layer so when I am finished, all that is left of my wood block is the last color that was printed. I can never remake an image unless I re-carve a new piece of wood. The prints are of very limited editions - not a typical Kinko’s reproduction.

I am constantly dumbfounded about how animals and the environment are treated. I like to point out with my artwork the ways that we as humans think we can rule the world without any

consequences, and without having any effect on our surroundings. My series Global Warming Band-aids explores how we are trying to drastically change the environment with geo-engineering projects spanning from dumping iron into the ocean to shooting mirrors into space. “Invasive animals” are mostly labeled as such because humans transported these beasts all around the world. “Bird Migration Myths” shows our lack of knowledge just a little over one century ago about where birds “go” in the wintertime.

I make artwork because I believe that my job is to bring a voice to our drastically changed landscape that has been deprived, depleted, and altered only to benefit one species, Homo sapiens. I hope that education and understanding leads to respecting and attaching importance to our own backyards and beyond.


METAPHYSICAL WALLPAPER (DETAIL) Dimensions Variable8’ x 4’ x 4’Installation2011

MARK RUMSEYGrand Rapids, Michigan

EDUCATION:2008 M.F.A., PrintmakingKendall College of Art & Design, Grand Rapids, MI1997 B.F.A., Printmaking & PhilosophyGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Mark Rumsey is a Michigan-based installation artist working in prints, paper, cloth, space, and light. His work has been exhibited around the nation and published in Grand Rapids Magazine, Revue Magazine, Detroit Free Press, the Chicago Reader, Artbistro.com and Artistaday.com.

Rumsey studied at Montana State University and Ohio State University prior to completing an MFA in Printmaking at Kendall College of Art & Design. He works to promote the visual arts through their integration into economic and community development. His arts advocacy work includes projects from community built artwork to organizing contemporary art festivals.

Rumsey has traveled extensively beginning with a study trip to China while at GVSU. International travel in the mode of cultural emersion informs his work – he’s travelled in China, Nepal, India, Egypt, Turkey, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, and much of the United States. In summer 2009 he was an artist in residence at Frans Masereel Centrum, the Flemish Center for Graphic Arts. In February 2011 Rumsey will be an artist in residence at the Studios of Key West.

As an artist, I’m interested in how we perceive what is around us. With the passage of time, we find new ways to investigate our world. New tools allow us to see further and further into our reality, clarifying what we thought we knew and creating a new set of questions to be answered. We use such information to define our understanding of existence. Knowing how things work may reveal why we are here.

As more of our world is explored, patterns unfold such as the crystalline structure of clouds, or the precise repetition of a perfect spiral in a snail or fern sprout. Pattern denotes a plan and is often used as evidence of the divine. Yet the divine is often alluded to in human terms with ideal human attributes – we humans have developed a process of theogony, or god building, based upon our observations and our desires.

Metaphysical Wallpaper plays with these ideas by presenting patterns composed of “eye of god” images. Three of these images represent three ways of perceiving. The eye in the pyramid depicts the divine looking out from on high - the observer. The scientific cross section represents the eye in observation, looking at the details, gathering information - the observed. The final eye is the “third eye,” looking inward to discover oneself and ultimately the oneness of it all. Within the panel, peep-holes have been set. By peering into them, the viewer will discover images that represent the divine in diverse cultures, religions, and traditions.


MORNINGS IN THE FALL #224 ½” x 4 ½” Pigment Transfer Print2010

JASON D. RUTTERAllendale, Michigan

EDUCATION:2007 B.F.A., PhotographyGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

While attending Grand Valley State University college Rutter worked as a darkroom assistant for photographer David Plowden. The time spent working with him greatly influenced Rutter’s photographic career both as a teacher of process and as a mentor of ideas.

Rutter’s personal work has taken on several themes and directions ranging from documentaries about Michigan farms, industrial sites at night, and images that deal with the natural landscape. Several of his projects have been exhibited and have been collected by the West Michigan community.

Rutter is currently a full time support staff member for the GVSU School of Communications with an emphasis in photography. As needed, he is an adjunct faculty member teaching an introductory course. He resides and creates his personal work in Allendale, Michigan.

Mornings in the Fall is a simple response to place, exploring the environment that surrounds my home and my short commute to work in the fall. They are snapshots of a fleeting moment of light, color, and season, with only a moment’s consideration prior to exposure. They were made in hopes of capturing, or at least chasing, the ephemeral state of the season.

MORNINGS IN THE FALL #27 (DETAIL)4 ½” x 4 ½” Pigment Transfer Print2010


KIMONO WITH FLOATING STILL LIFE48” x 48”Oil on Linen2010

SHARON SANDBERGGrand Rapids, Michigan

EDUCATION:1987 M.F.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI1980 B.F.A., Painting, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Sharon Sandberg is a Grand Rapids painter of Still Life, who has been working and exhibiting over the past twenty-three years in West Michigan, the Midwest and internationally in London, Australia and Japan. Sandberg received a B.F.A. degree from Grand Valley State University and a M.F.A. degree from the University of Michigan. She has studied at the Universite’ d’Aix-Marseilles III in France and the Slade School of Fine Arts in London. She has been teaching painting at Aquinas College since Fall 1997. In 1998, Sandberg was honored with a 10 year retrospective at The Grand Rapids Art Museum.

During the winter semesters of 2004 and 2009, Sandberg was invited to Hikone, Japan as a Visiting Scholar/Artist in Residence at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities. There she taught, painted and pursued research in the aesthetics of Japanese art. She is widely traveled and has participated for many years in leading university students overseas to England and France.

For me, still life is a marriage of metaphor, arrangement and observation. Factors of choice, such as placement, point of view and lighting seem to “plasticize” this particular genre allowing the painter an enormous amount of freedom for abstract manipulation.In my paintings I strive for serene and lucid solutions to arrangement and color. I look for, and attempt to establish, relationships between very ordinary, often utilitarian objects - objects that have beautiful and functional shapes and old objects that seem to have a past. I am fond of objects, especially those with such qualities such as an antiquated wooden ironing board...vessels and containers... tools...the geometry of fruit... kimono and trees...patina... and empty space.


SOLAR MAGNETIC OSCILLATION DETECTOR13” x 12” x 15”Copper, Sterling Silver, Nu-gold, Nickel Silver, Fiber Optics, LED, Glass2007

AMANDA STARKRockford, Michigan

EDUCATION:2006 M.F.A. 3-Dimensional Art; Jewelry and MetalsmithingBowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH2003 B.F.A., Jewelry and MetalsmithingGrand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan

Amanda E. Stark was raised in Rockford, Michigan. After graduation from GVSU, she studied in Florence, Italy at Lorenzo de’ Medici School of Art. Upon returning she completed her graduate studies at Bowling Green State University. Stark was a finalist and a winner of the 2006 Student NICHE Award, has recently won the Pamela Morris Thomford Award for Excellence in Metal from Ohio Designer Craftsman, the Dorothy MacKenzie Price Purchase Award from Bowling Green State University, and the Individual Excellence Award for 2008 from the Ohio Arts Council. For two consecutive years her work has been selected for the New Glass Review publication. Stark’s work has appeared in regional and national shows, where she has won awards. It can be found in the permanent collection of the Muskegon Museum of Art and several private collections.

Ideas for my work have been formulated while examining obsolete and unusable scientific equipment. These encompass the many divisions of science, the foremost for me being Astronomy, because of the many historical and metaphorical facets which exist around it. These lead me to create absorbing mnemonic details within each piece, frequently leading the viewer to conclude conceivable functions.

Astronomy also allows me the opportunity to diversify the origins of my subjects. It has its base in Earth Science and Physics; these in turn are related to Chemistry and Biology. Discoveries in each scientific discipline, and in the evolution of related equipment suggest topics for my artwork. Since my subject is conceived utilitarian function, and my focus is scientific, material consideration is important. The ability of metal

to be used in a mechanical fashion makes it of primary interest. The association of glass with the disciplines of science makes it an essential secondary material. It affords me the opportunity of creating enclosed spaces that tantalize the viewer with a display of contents. The alteration of light through the use of lenses also assists in the articulation of details.

Although each artwork is created with what appears to be some function in mind, the functionality is more of an evoked quality formed by our era’s sensibilities of technological shapes. The viewer is allowed the opportunity to create their own interpretation of possible function. A metaphorical dimension also exists between the actual objects and their possible interpretations, as in the contents of a Wunderkammer. Each piece’s unique and mysterious characteristics afford endless conclusions. Some of my work takes on the guise of navigational instruments. This in turn creates metaphors for the viewer related to exploration, wonder, mystery and, of course, possibility.


ORIFICE3” x 30”Wood, wax, cast plastic 2007

AMY STIENBARGERBrooklyn, New York

I am interested in the underneath stuff; the things we don’t bring out into the light of day but which sit just below the surface. There is conflict between emotions and perceptions. Something can be disgusting and disturbing, yet evoke humor or pique our curiosity. We want to look at what we find disturbing - freak shows, horror movies, car accidents- things that are believable yet foreign; things that shock us out of the mundane rhythm of our daily existence. We shield our eyes yet peak through.

The details of life are gruesome, messy. We wrap them in packages, skins, to hide their inner workings. The hidden parts and pieces are the stuff that makes it work. Bone, flesh, blood and tissue make our bodies move, but they are not pretty.

I create scenarios based upon the physical nature of our existence - biological, mechanical - and tweak it. I turn it over on its belly to reveal the underside. I take a pleasing object and begin to dissect it, to reveal its viscera, then begin to manipulate it, making the dull and inane curious and provoking. I make objects that are not found in nature but quote it, distorting what could be real, developing potential new realities, being the maker of my own world.

ORIFICE (DETAIL)3” x 30”Wood, wax, cast plastic 2007

EDUCATION:2003 M.F.A., Fine Arts, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY1998 B.S., Film & Video (Animation)1998 B.F.A., Sculpture, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI


PORTRAIT 135”x 42” Photo Installation on Digital Backlit Material 2010

BRIANA TRUDELLGrand Rapids, Michigan

EDUCATION:2009 B.A., PhotographyGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Briana Trudell currently resides and creates in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her recent work questions and critiques photography and examines how people view it as an art and how they use it in their daily lives. Trudell works using photography in a unique way that forces viewers to look past a photograph as an object that shows how things look, to an object that represents how people think and how they view things.

PORTRAIT 135”x 42” Photo Installation on Digital Backlit Material 2010

How much can 1/100th of a second tell you?

Some portrait photographers aspire to capture life’s meaning and emotion, or to produce images that prompt us to see things differently, to look into the story behind the photo. And yet the photographer sets the style, directs the pose, and wields the camera - an intimidating, powerful tool. Sitters are not at ease in their natural gestures.

It is an artificial setting.

Ultimately, it is not really a story about the sitter. A portrait is but a fraction of a second of the photographer’s story, of his or her own interaction with the sitter.

This work is my personal interpretation of portrait photography.


I AM (STILL!) AN ARTISTDimensions variableMixed Media2010

JULIE UPMEYERIstanbul, Turkey

EDUCATION:2003 B.F.A., Ceramics Magna Cum LaudeGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Julie Upmeyer creates site and context specific works, generally interactive, often times edible. After graduating from Grand Valley State University, she moved abroad to embark on a three-year nomadic life working for artists and arts organizations in India, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Greece. Moving to Istanbul in 2006, she set up shop, found jobs, and continued with her art practice, initiating projects such as the Virtual Chef – a trans-locational interactive cooking experience. Continuing with international projects, she has recently exhibited in Armenia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, the United States of America and Turkey. She is co-owner of Caravansarai, a production space, meeting point and artist residency in Istanbul and works as website editor for Res Artis, the international network of artist residency programs.

An exhibition of alumni artwork….this calls for a celebration! And awards! We’ve battled through economic recessions, managed with little or no health care, paid our bills, and have survived in the ‘real world’ long enough to participate in this exhibition.

Congratulations! You are (still!) an artist!

Success and achievements are measured and acknowledged in any number of ways. Sports competitions are perhaps the most celebratory, with well-choreographed ceremonies to conclude competitions. Once past childhood and outside of academia, formalized, brightly colored celebrations make way for more subdued dinner parties, cocktails and e-cards. Let’s be nostalgic…you deserve a medal.


MACKENZIE FALLS15.5” x 23”Ultrachrome K3 Ink on Enhanced Matte Paper2010

DAN WATTSGrand Rapids, Michigan

EDUCATION:1979 B.S. Arts and Media/Photo ScienceGrand Valley State Colleges, William James College, Allendale, MI

I’ve been looking at the world through a camera lens for so long now that the viewfinder itself has become my proverbial “third-eye”. This mystical, magical tool allows me to visually take in things that I simply never noticed before my days as a photographer. The visual details of our quotidian lives, color, texture, shade, shape and form have all become integral components of my work, sometimes one at a time, sometimes at once. Since first bringing a camera to my eye, photography quickly evolved from infatuation to pure passion.

While most of my freelance assignment work over the years has been in the commercial/industrial photography arena, my landscape/cityscape photography portfolios are shown more than my corporate work. Auspiciously, the commercial work has consistently financed my personal landscape photography since the early 1980s, and has taken me to thirty-six countries on five continents. While I continue to do commercial photography for corporations, magazines and agencies, the work I really love is the landscape/cityscape/peoplescape photography that now takes up most of my time. It has created numerous collections that are geared to stock photography and wall décor.

I’ve suffered from chronic wanderlust for a very long time now, always looking for the next photo project to take me somewhere interesting. Since discovering my passion for landscape and cityscape photography, I’ve photographed in thirty-six countries on five continents. My most recent overseas project in April and May of 2010 took me to the southeastern state of Victoria in Australia.

We were in Melbourne to photograph several architectural projects and when they were completed, we headed for the southern coastal region known for its Great Ocean Road. Lined with small picturesque surfer towns, the area has the character of the Pacific coast roads in California where steep cliffs drop to crashing waves below. We spent a week driving along the GOR and then headed inland to the Grampian Mountains. This created a diverse Australian photo-essay of both seaside and mountainous regions.

Over the years my commercial/industrial photography has financed most of the personal landscape projects around the world. Those personal projects have, in-turn been incorporated into various commercial projects, and that cycle has gone on for more than thirty years. This symbiotic relationship between commercial work and landscape photography has been ideal for someone afflicted with the travel bug.

DAWN’S FIRST LIGHT15.5” x 23”Ultrachrome K3 Ink on Enhanced Matte Paper2010


HENRY MATTHEWSDIRECTORGVSU GALLERIES AND COLLECTIONS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As the GVSU Art Gallery staff prepares to open the first of three MULTiMEDiA exhibitions showcasing the talent and creativity of our faculty and alumni, I wish to extend many thanks to President Thomas J. Haas and Provost Gayle R. Davis for their support and provision of introductory thoughts for this on-line catalog. These exhibitions were conceived as important components of the rich slate of programs that mark the university’s fiftieth anniversary, and I am thankful for the support of the Steering Committee, chaired by Teri Losey, Special Assistant to the President, that planned the anniversary celebrations. The two faculty exhibitions will be presented this fall, and the alumni show, MULTiMEDiA III, will open in January 2011 accompanied by an expanded catalog and essay by alumnus and noted Chicago contemporary art gallery owner William D. Lieberman (’79).

I would particularly like to thank and acknowledge the Art Gallery’s staff – especially Paris Tennenhouse - whose creativity brought about the structure of both of the exhibitions and the accompanying on-line catalog. Professor Sigrid Danielson, an art historian in the Department of Art & Design, wrote an essay summarizing the history of the Art Gallery and of faculty exhibitions at GVSU, while providing insight into the university’s campus-wide embrace of public art. These projects were also made possible by the early endorsement by the chairs of the two participating departments – Tony Thompson of the School of Communications and Virginia Jenkins of the Department of Art and Design. We join them in extending appreciation to the participating artists from both departments. Their work forms the basis of the exhibitions. Finally, I wish to acknowledge alumnus Chris Fox for his thoughtful design of the catalog and Timothy Chester, whose editing unified the text into a single voice.

The GVSU Art Gallery will build on its heritage of showcasing the talents of the university’s faculty, students and alumni by both exhibition in galleries and through acquisition and long-term display throughout the university’s West Michigan campuses. Even as I write this acknowledgement, a new Art Gallery Support Facility is being completed on the Allendale campus, with space for storage and art preparation, a classroom for student study of the Print and Drawing collection and office space for student interns and a growing professional staff. More than 9,500 works of art have been acquired by the university for its permanent collection. It has been both fascinating and rewarding for all who have worked to make it happen.

Henry A. MatthewsDirector of Galleries & CollectionsAugust, 2010


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